Oklahoma Earthquake Aftershocks Follow Record Quake

TULSA, Okla. -- Aftershocks are rattling central Oklahoma days after a record-setting earthquake hit the state, which is seeing a dramatic, unexplained increase in seismic activity.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded at least five tremors Monday, the strongest being a 4.7 magnitude quake near Prague, about 50 miles east of Oklahoma City.

The federal agency received reports of it being felt in Kansas City, Mo., and Little Rock, Ark. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

But damage reports from Saturday's record-setting 5.6 magnitude quake are still coming in, ranging from cracks in the walls of homes to a county bridge. The quake was felt in parts of six other states.

Oklahoma had about 50 earthquakes annually until 2009. Then the number spiked, and 1,047 quakes shook the state last year.

Comments

[dewh]

12:43 PM on 11/12/2011

Maybe here in Oklahoma we've just reached our weight limit.

[NotStarvingArtist]

08:43 PM on 11/08/2011

There has been a big push in recent years to drill more oil and gas ‑ particularly natural gas fracking. They tend to play down the effects (it's referred to as subsidence in the industry) but a lot of the increased seismic activity around this part of the country is likely due to oil and gas extraction. It's not absolute proof but there was a fracking operation in Greenbrier, Arkansas where earthquakes had increased a thousand fold but they went back to normal after all the operations shut down. There had been 6 wells and as each shut down the quake frequency dropped by another 6th from the peak. The same sort of thing has been recorded in other states as well.

[intolleft]

04:41 PM on 11/08/2011

I hear OK had tornadoes yesterday. We should stop fracking now.

[DannyGee]

10:10 PM on 11/08/2011

huh?

[OkieMon]

12:48 PM on 11/08/2011

can you spell HYDRAULIC FRACTURING ????

[intolleft]

04:42 PM on 11/08/2011

Yes, they caused the tornadoes yesterday as well.

[dewh]

12:44 PM on 11/12/2011

Or Obama did, lol

[LastAngryWoman]

04:42 PM on 11/08/2011

They used to have 50 per year and now they have over one THOUSAND ??!! Um...

http://blogs.reuters.com/muniland/2011/11/08/is-fracking-behind-oklahomas-earthquakes/

[Juli Bunting]

11:23 AM on 11/08/2011

I felt tremors between 10:40 and 10:50 Saturday night in Columbia, Missouri. Could not find then and cannot find now where or how to report it to the USGS. We just moved here from Seattle and what I felt was unmistakeably an earthquake.

[izmophonik]

05:48 PM on 11/08/2011

usgs.gov - They actually recorded that quake last night at a 3.5 mag I believe.