EARTHQUAKE!!!!!
 

Well, we just had us an Earthquake. USGS is saying 5.6 on the R scale. This is the biggest recorded quake in the history of Oklahoma, but records have only been kept since 1950. OK, so it takes us awhile to get up to speed.

I am about 150 miles away from the center, so all it did was rattle my windows. People closer to it are saying it knocked over some lamps and what not. The center was about 60 miles due east of Oklahoma City, or, as we call it, The City.

I am glad we are getting an extra hour of time tonight, but I did not plan on spending it watching the windows shake.

<3 the effects of fracking.

There are a number of people saying that very thing. Lots of oil and gas wells here and fracturing wells has been going on for a long time.

The epi on this is located on a known fault line, though. Still......

When will Dumberica get it through their thick skulls that a nuclear/hydrogen/renewable economy is the way to go for the next 100 years, till we discover controlled fusion or something better?

The earthquake depth was 5 km. Fracking is going on at <4 km. Fracking is not the cause.

Bot, You need the feed the fear-mongers; not refute them with fact.

A 5.6? yawn-- let us know when you get a real earthquake.

Not a lot of real damage here. One street buckeled up and some older building developed cracks. Real buildings did not get built in this state until about 1910 since Oklahoma was not a state until 1907.

I don't really buy into the Hyd Fracturing thing myself since it has been going on for about 55 years around here. I know of a lot of wells that have been 'enhanced' and all that took place was more oil flowed out. Occidental Oil once set off an atomic blast in a deep oil well to see what would take place. The well started to flow like crazy, but the oil was radioactive. This was a part of the 'Atoms for Peace' project during the 50's.

By the way, this did not cause any earthquakes.

The state has been keeping records since about 1950, but some of the Indian tribes have been here for a few thousand years. Their oral traditions talk about earthquakes going back to the days of when they first arrived, so ones this big and deep are really nothing new. The biggest earthquake in US history was the New Madrid quake which is only a few hundred miles from here.

This is just kind of weird for Oklahoma.

Didn't happen in Okla, though -- the only underground explosions on US soil outside of Nevada Test Site were in NM, CO, AK, and MS. I think the NM one is what you're thinking about, but it was designed to extract gas, not oil.

Geology in those areas may have been very different.

New Madrid Fault Line right? lasted about a minute.....:cool:

Aftershocks (if that's what they are) were felt in Texas...not much of a tremor though, kinda felt like a locomotive rushed past a few feet from the house.

Earthquake Facts and Statistics

heres some earthquake studies and maps

if one starts acting up around the colorado area thats when we all need to be alert.

I was awake and felt the first tremor Fri night (just after 2AM Saturday) and the first aftershock Sat night just before 11PM. We also had another aftershock in the middle of the night Sat night but I didn't feel that one.
It was pretty interesting. I'm far enough away from the epicenter that there was no damage but the movement of things that are normally rock-stable is disconcerting.
We have thunderstorms and the potential for large hail and high winds today. Gotta love Oklahoma weather.

If you're not in an earthquake-prone area, that can be very unsettling. When we had the one in Virginia not too long ago, I believe that's the first one I ever experienced. Even though they don't last very long, it seems like they are going on for a while.