Home / Disasters and Accidents / False Earthquake Alert Shocks Nevada
False Earthquake Alert Shocks Nevada
15 Jan
Summary
- ShakeAlert issued a false alert for an earthquake.
- The false alert occurred near Carson City, Nevada.
- System safeguards were insufficient to prevent the error.
On December 4, 2025, a false magnitude-5.9 earthquake alert was issued near Carson City, Nevada, by the USGS-operated ShakeAlert system. This non-existent seismic event triggered widespread notifications through the Wireless Emergency Alert system and the MyShake app, causing unnecessary alarm among residents.
The preliminary technical analysis identified that the internal processing software's safeguards were insufficient to prevent the erroneous alert. These controls, designed to mitigate false alarms, failed in this instance, highlighting a critical vulnerability in the earthquake early warning infrastructure.
Efforts are currently underway to integrate significant changes into the ShakeAlert system. The lessons learned from this incident will be used to improve how the software recognizes and processes false triggers, aiming to prevent future false alerts while maintaining rapid detection capabilities.
