Dec 4 (Reuters) - The United States Geological Survey said on Thursday that its automatic earthquake detection system had erroneously sent out a report earlier in the day that a 5.9 magnitude earthquake had struck near Dayton, Nevada.

A spokesperson for the USGS said there was no such temblor in the region, about 12 miles northeast of the state capital Carson City, saying the report was "a bogus event."

The USGS was trying to understand what went wrong and why the automatic earthquake detection system sent out the alert, the spokesperson said.

Multiple law enforcement agencies in surrounding cities and counties also confirmed that they did not feel any shaking or other signs of an earthquake.

A magnitude 5.9 quake typically is strong enough to cause slight property damage and strong shaking, according to the Michigan Tech Earthquake Magnitude Scale.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks, Andrew Hay, Rich McKay and Ruchika Khanna; Editing by Frank McGurty and Chizu Nomiyama )