"Robert DeGroot, operations team lead for the USGS-managed ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System, told SFGATE that at least four sensors across Nevada detected motion, leading to an automated warning sent out via MyShake Alert to a large portion of California. "We don't have an explanation for why the ground shook," DeGroot told SFGATE by phone Friday. "Something happened in the ground because the sensors detected motion. So that part is completely unknown at the moment, but we know that the sensors were triggered.""
""It did exactly what it was supposed to do, and then that information is passed on to the people who deliver the alerts for us," he explained. That warning, issued shortly after 8 a.m. on Thursday, was sent to wide swaths of California including the "Bay Area, the Eastern Sierra, and parts of South-Central California," according to an email from USGS. Shortly after the warning was sent, USGS duty officers realized no earthquake had been detected and removed the earthquake information from the USGS page."
An automated ShakeAlert warning for a magnitude 5.9 earthquake was issued after multiple Nevada sensors detected ground motion even though no earthquake occurred. At least four stations in Nevada triggered and the information was routed to a processing center that produced the magnitude determination. The warning was distributed via MyShake Alert to large portions of California, then removed when USGS duty officers found no seismic event. The western network includes over 1,600 sensors spaced roughly 10 to 20 miles apart and requires a minimum of four stations to confirm an event. An investigation into what tripped the sensors is ongoing.
Read at SFGATE
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