Hi Petra. While anything is possible not all things are probable. Or so it seems.

When I checked the nuclear testing area in Nevada I found that no underground testing had not been done before 1957. There was no nuclear testing in Nevada in 1954, but 11 such bombs were detonated at the Fallon test range in 1953 and these were above the surface.

An interesting thing to note though is that 07/06/1954 there were two quakes (6.6Ml, 6.4Ml) at Rainbow Mountain, Nevada. On 8/24/1954 and 8/31/1954 there were two quakes (6.6Ml and 6.4Ml at Stillwater, Nevada. Then there were the two quakes (7.1Ml and 6.8Ml) one each at Fairview Mountain and Dixie Valley Nevada. The distance between all of these quakes is 15 miles.

I couldn't find the Lat/Long of the test sites so I used the Lat/Long of Fallon, Nevada, as this was the closest populated center to the test site. Fallon, Nevada is located at 39.47N/118.77W. All of the quakes were southeast of Fallon, but that doesn't mean they were southeast of the test site. The closest quake was at Stillwater at 39.35N/118.27W. The furthest one away was at Rainbow Mountain at 39.18N/118.30W.

Nevada is no stranger to large quakes. In 1869 they had a 6.7M at Virginia City, Nevada. It was near Gold Mountain. That was the mountain just west of the town. Sure glad they didn't have a quake when we were there. They would have blamed you for causing it and me for bringing you there. In 1915 they had a 7.6Ml at Pleasant Valley south of Winnemucca, Nevada. This quake to date is the largest one recorded in Nevada. In 1932 they had a 7.2 in the Gabbs area. The most recent quake was a 6.0M at Double Flat Springs in 1994.

Dixie Valley is characterized by active extensional faulting along its margins. The valley occupies a part of the Central Nevada Seismic Belt, a generally north-northeast trending zone of late Quaternary faulting and historical seismicity that has been the locus of several moderate to large magnitude earthquakes during the past 100 years. These earthquakes include the 1954 Dixie Valley and 1915 Pleasant Valley earthquakes. The geothermal field is located between the endpoints of the 1954 and 1915 surface ruptures along a segment of the Dixie Valley fault, which has not ruptured in historic time.

As it can be seen it's not likely that underground nuclear testing caused the quakes, as there were no such test before 1957. However that doesn't mean that an atmosphere detonation couldn't have caused the quakes. However it should be pointed out that many underground tests have been done since 1957 and there have been no major quakes in the area. Take Care…Don in creepy town