M6.5 Earthquake Monte Cristo Range, NV Earthquake, May 15, 2020

Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

The earthquake

Magnitude: 6.5 (ML, local (Richter)), strong
Magnitude from: Nevada Seismological Laboratory
Local time: Fri, May 15, 2020, 4:03 AM PDT
UTC: 2020-05-15 11:03:27 UTC
Depth: 2.7 km (1.7 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 38.169° N, 117.850° W
Region: Nevada
Felt reports: 11,961
Strongest shaking: VIII, severe shaking
PAGER alert: Green
Tsunami flag: No
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Magnitude estimates

Different scales measure different things and differ by a few tenths. The USGS marks one as preferred, and it is the one this page uses.

Mag.	Scale	Computed by	Notes
6.5	ML, local (Richter)	Nevada Seismological Laboratory	Preferred · Reviewed
6.5	Mww, W-phase moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Reviewed · ±0.038 · 65 stations
6.47	Mw, moment	ISC-GEM global catalog	Final · ±0.1
6.8	Mi	NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center	First automatic solution · Reviewed · 26 stations
6.4	Mwb, body-wave moment	USGS National Earthquake Information Center	Moment tensor · Reviewed
6.3	Mwr, regional moment	Nevada Seismological Laboratory	Moment tensor · Reviewed

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

Minor damage occurred at Tonopah and U.S. Route 95 between Las Vegas and Reno was closed due to cracks.

From the USGS event page for nn00725272. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Shaking

The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.

Strongest estimated: VIII, severe shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 50.4% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 3.9 cm/s
Map: Automatic

USGS ShakeMap: estimated shaking intensity around the epicenter — Estimated shaking intensity. Map: USGS ShakeMap.

Did you feel it?

11,961 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was VII, very strong shaking.

Estimated impact

The USGS PAGER system estimates deaths and economic losses from the shaking and the population and buildings exposed to it.

Alert level: Green: little or no damage or loss of life expected

Deaths: estimated chance of each range
Range	Chance
Under 1	65%
1 to 10	30%
10 to 100	4%
100 to 1,000	Under 1%
1,000 to 10,000	Under 1%
10,000 to 100,000	Under 1%
100,000 to 10,000,000	Under 1%

Economic losses: estimated chance of each range
Range, million USD	Chance
Under 1	Over 99%
1 to 10	Under 1%
10 to 100	Under 1%
100 to 1,000	Under 1%
1,000 to 10,000	Under 1%
10,000 to 100,000	Under 1%
100,000 to 10,000,000	Under 1%

Fault motion and ground failure

How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.

Faulting: Strike-slip
Moment magnitude: 6.5 Mww
Nodal plane 1: Strike 168°, dip 67°, rake -167°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 73°, dip 78°, rake -24°
Landslide alert: Green
Liquefaction alert: Yellow

Tectonic setting

Why earthquakes happen here, from the USGS tectonic summary.

The May 15, 2020 M 6.5 earthquake 56 km west f Tonopah, Nevada, occurred as the result of strike slip faulting in the shallow crust of the North America plate. Preliminary focal mechanism solutions for the event, which describe the style of faulting in an earthquake, indicate slip likely occurred on a steeply dipping fault striking either east-west (left-lateral) or north-south (right-lateral). This earthquake occurred within the Walker Lane, an active zone of seismicity roughly aligned with the California-Nevada border. Tectonically, the Walker Lane accommodates up to 25% of the North America:Pacific Plate motion, with the remainder mostly accommodated on the San Andreas fault system.

About two dozen M5+ earthquakes have occurred within 100 km of this event over the past 50 years, mostly to the west and south. Two M6+ events have occurred over the same region in the past century – a M 6.5 earthquake 40 km to the northwest in January 1934, and a M 6.8 event 50 km to the north in December 1932. Both of these earthquakes caused severe local shaking (MMI VIII); the 1932 earthquake is documented to have caused damage in the sparsely populated surrounding region. As of 12:00 UTC, 6 M4+ aftershocks have occurred since the M 6.5 earthquake, extending over a region about 30 km to the west of the mainshock.

From the USGS event page for nn00725272. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Station coverage gap: 56°
Stations used: 27

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 3.5 and up: 127 in the 60 days after this one and 5 in the 30 days before it.

After

The first 60 of 127.

Before

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event nn00725272 (also filed as us70009gj8, pt20136000, iscgem618259420). Read Fri, Oct 2, 2026, 6:49 AM UTC.