By Andrew Hay and Brad Brooks

Dec 4 (Reuters) – The United States Geological Survey said on Thursday its automatic earthquake detection system had erroneously sent out a report earlier in the day that a 5.9 magnitude temblor had struck in Nevada, saying it was likely the first time the USGS had issued a quake report that was completely bogus.

Yaareb Altaweel, a geophysicist with the survey’s National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado, said the USGS was still trying to understand why its automatic ShakeAlert early warning system sent out the erroneous alert of a quake centered near Dayton, Nevada.

The report prompted cell phones in the San Francisco Bay area, some 180 miles away, to buzz with a warning to residents to “DROP! COVER! HOLD ON!,” according to a Reuters witnes

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