A magnitude 5.9 earthquake was reported in Nevada on Thursday morning, triggering phone alerts as far away as San Francisco, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The report was later removed from the agency’s public map.
The quake, if confirmed, was initially listed about 20 miles east of Lake Tahoe.
As of 8:23 a.m. PT, the USGS had deleted the event from its website, and it was not immediately clear whether the temblor had occurred.
The MyShake app sends notifications for earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 and above.
People who received Thursday’s alert were advised to drop, cover and hold on.
A large number of people took to X, formerly Twitter, to share that they had received an earthquake alert, asking others whether the temblor had actually occurred.
However, the official USGS ShakeAlert X profile later clarified that "earthquake alerts that were delivered at 8:06am are cancelled. There was no M5.9 earthquake near Carson City, NV. We are currently looking into why the alerts were issued."
Officials in Lyon County, where the quake was reported to be centered, did not issue any emergency alerts, and no shaking was felt in the San Francisco area.
