An quake of the same magnitude rattled the region in November 2011.
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“Without studying the specifics of the wastewater injection and oil and gas production in this area, the USGS can not now conclude whether or not this particular quake was caused by industrial-related, human activities”, the agency said in a statement.
The U.S. Geological Survey, in a March report on “induced earthquakes”, said as many as 7.9 million people in parts of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas now face the same natural disaster risks as those in California. Dallas TV station WFAA tweeted that the quake shook their studios. State and local emergency management officials and officials from the US Geological Survey assessed damage Sunday, according to Mark Randell, Pawnee County’s emergency management director.
In March, the USGS published a report that said fracking was causing man-made earthquakes in parts of the U.S., with northern Oklahoma at particular risk.
On the north side of Oklahoma City, firefighters had to remove the stacks off a crumbling chimney along NE 21 Street after bricks began raining down off a almost 100-year-old house. He was checked out at the hospital and released.
Governor Mary Fallin has declared a state of emergency for Pawnee County following yesterday’s 5.6 magnitude quake. He said it was shallow, about a couple of miles deep.
“There’s all kinds of theories as to why it puts pressure on the basement faults, but somehow that is happening and we have taken many actions based on that”, Skinner said.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Furniture store owner Lee Wills told The Associated Press he was awake when the quake struck at 7:02 a.m. Saturday and first thought it was a thunderstorm. Everything went insane after that.
But then his home, which is about 2½ miles outside of town, started shaking.
A Pawnee business owner says the 5.6 magnitude quake shook his house “like a rubber band” and knocked items off cabinets and broke glass. “Threw stuff off cabinets and out of cabinets, broke glasses”.
According to USA Today, “Parts of Oklahoma now match Northern California for the nation’s most shake-prone”.
In Oklahoma, where earthquakes increased by 50 percent a year ago as about 1.5 billion barrels of wastewater from oil and gas sites were disposed of underground, the link between fracking and seismic events is well-established. The temblor brought down parts of buildings, caused a minor injury and was felt in at least six states. Kansas moved quickly to limit volume, while Oklahoma concentrated on the depth of the disposal. Kansas saw a 60 percent drop in quakes, while the frequency of quakes in Oklahoma continued to climb.
The Garfield Furniture building, constructed in 1898 with materials from the old Enid brickyard, is one of the oldest brick buildings in Enid, Frazee said.
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The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the 5.6 magnitude quake that was centered in Pawnee County “Could be felt over a seven-state area”.
