Lancashire residents say the 3.3-magnitude tremor felt like "an underground explosion", but there are no reports of damage.

“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.”

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mexico, centered about 50 miles south-southwest of La Esperanza.

Just after 8 a.m. Bay Area residents received a MyShake alert warning of magnitude 5.9 earthquake hitting east of Carson City, Nevada close to the Lake Tahoe region. The quake also appeared on the USGS map of latest earthquakes. But within minutes the report of the quake disappeared on the USGS page.

In general, earthquakes are caused by the tectonic plates that make up the earth moving and rubbing together. The UK is situated within the Eurasian plate, more than 1,600km away from the nearest plate boundary, which is why it does not experience earthquakes as big as other parts of the world.

In a recent Science study, researchers used 15 kilometers of telecom fiber near Mendocino, Calif., to record the region’s biggest earthquake in five years—capturing in fine detail how the magnitude 7 rupture started, slowed and sped up, accelerating even faster than the speed of sound.

Residents in Nevada woke up to a shocking 5.9 magnitude earthquake alert, but after the panic settled, the whole thing turned out to be a fake quake alert sent by USGS.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CA - Friday afternoon, a preliminary 2.2 magnitude quake was recorded close to Fortuna, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.