"Phones across Northern California lit up this morning with a notice warning of an earthquake in Nevada, and urging people to drop, cover and hold on an alert that turned out to be a false alarm. The U.S. Geological Survey quickly canceled the warning and posted a statement online that said there was no earthquake at all. On December 4, 2025, the ShakeAlert EEW system released an incorrect alert for a magnitude 5.9 earthquake near Reno and Carson City, Nevada, the statement read."
"The event did not occur, and has been deleted from USGS websites and data feeds. The USGS is working to understand the cause of the false alert. The alert caused at least one TV station, KTVU, to report on the quake. Four million Californians have downloaded the MyShake app, which provides real-time alerts for earthquakes on smartphones. The app was developed at UC Berkeley's Seismology Lab and funded by the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES)."
On December 4, 2025, the ShakeAlert EEW system released an incorrect alert for a magnitude 5.9 earthquake near Reno and Carson City, Nevada; no earthquake occurred and the event was deleted from USGS websites and data feeds. The U.S. Geological Survey canceled the warning and said it is investigating the cause of the false alert. The erroneous warning triggered at least one TV station report and pushed notifications to users of the MyShake smartphone app. MyShake has more than four million downloads, was developed at UC Berkeley's Seismology Lab with Cal OES funding, and has delivered over 170 real alerts since 2019.
Read at www.berkeleyside.org
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