Alert sent for Nevada earthquake that did not happen

BBC News - WorldCenterEN 1 min read 100% complete December 4, 2025 at 10:50 PM

AI Summary

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On Thursday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) mistakenly issued an alert for a magnitude 5.9 earthquake near Carson City, Nevada, at 08:06 local time. The alert, which reached residents as far as the San Francisco Bay Area, was retracted minutes later by the USGS. The agency confirmed that no earthquake had occurred and removed the erroneous report from its website. The USGS attributed the false alert to a malfunction in its automatic earthquake detection system, marking the first time the agency has issued a completely false earthquake notification. An investigation is currently underway to determine the cause of the system error, while law enforcement agencies near the reported epicenter confirmed the absence of any seismic activity.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

Carson City ×280% United States Geological Survey ×4100%

Keywords

earthquake alert 100% false notification 80% usgs 70% earthquake detection system 60% magnitude 5.9 earthquake 60% malfunction 50% carson city 50% investigation 40%

Sentiment Analysis

Neutral

Score: -0.10

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Source

BBC News - World

Political Lean

Center (0.00)

Far LeftCenterFar Right

Classification Confidence

90%

Geographic Perspective

Carson City

This article was automatically classified using rule-based analysis. The political bias score ranges from -1 (far left) to +1 (far right).

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earthquake alert false notification usgs earthquake detection system magnitude 5.9 earthquake malfunction carson city investigation

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