An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 rattled the California-Nevada border on Thursday afternoon, with people reporting feeling the shaking hundreds of kilometres away, according to the US Geological Survey.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The earthquake struck at 3.49pm in a region about 402km east of San Francisco and south of Lake Tahoe. Its epicentre was 32km southwest of Smith Valley, Nevada. It was followed by a dozen aftershocks, with at least one with a 4.6 magnitude, the USGS said.
Sally Rosen, who owns a popular burger restaurant in Walker, near the epicentre, said her 2-year-old was napping in her arms in her home behind the restaurant when the earthquake hit.
"We felt the shaking of the building, and we didn't know quite what it was at first," she told KGO-TV in San Francisco. "It kept going, and it was pretty intense and scary, frankly. So we ran out of the house as fast as we could and ran to the restaurant because the first thought was, 'Oh my goodness, we need to shut off the gas.' "
