DECEMBER 16, 1954 (M=7.1 AND 6.8)
[c6, p168]

The Dixie Valley-Fairview Peak earthquakes of December 16, 1954, produced a 90-km-long zone of right-lateral oblique and normal faulting in the central Nevada seismic zone ( Figure 6.11; Slemmons, 1957). The first shock, which occurred east of Fairview Peak, produced lateral displacements of more than 4 m and vertical displacements of as much as 3 m. Faulting along this 50-km-long zone was predominantly down to the east opposite Fairview Peak and changed polarity to the north. The second shock, which occurred 4 minutes later, had an epicenter on the east side of Dixie Valley in a left-stepping echelon arrangement with the earlier event. Normal-fault scarps formed along a 40-km-long zone at the base of the Stillwater Range some 20 km west of the Rainbow Mountain faulting. Vertical displacements exceeded 2 m, and consistent strike-slip displacements were absent.