The commission, which regulates fuel, oil, gas, public utilities and transportation industries, is investigating to determine the epicenter of the quake that hit Pawnee, said commission spokesman Matt Skinner. “The Oklahoma Geological Survey has determined that the majority of recent earthquakes in central and north-central Oklahoma are very likely triggered by the injection of produced water [i.e., wastewater] in disposal wells”.
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The United States Geological Survey said a 5.6 magnitude quake happened at 7:02 a.m. Saturday in north-central Oklahoma near the town of Pawnee, on the fringe of an area where regulators had stepped in to limit wastewater disposal.
“We have done a 725 square mile area of interest, but 211 square miles of that is in Osage County, where we do not have any jurisdiction or data on disposal well activity”, he said.
Fallin issued a declaration of emergency for Pawnee County to start the process of “helping individuals, families and businesses impacted by the earthquakes” and help them request any necessary assistance. State and local emergency management officials and officials from the U.S. Geological Survey assessed damage Sunday, according to Pawnee County Emergency Management Director Mark Randell.
“We have had a lot of earthquakes in that area that were related to wastewater injection”, he said.
Saturday’s quake was centered about 9 miles northwest of Pawnee, Oklahoma, which has a population of about 2,200. Minor cosmetic damage was noted on two bridges.
The epicenter of the quake, Pawnee, Oklahoma, is 300 miles away. He was later released from the hospital.
The drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, also generates large amounts of wastewater, but the OGS report said fracking is responsible for only a small percentage of the total volume of injected wastewater.
“By including human-induced events, our assessment of natural disaster hazards has significantly increased in parts of the US”, Mark Petersen, chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project, said in a statement.
“While we understand that Oklahoma has historically experienced some level of seismicity, we know that the recent rise in earthquakes can not be entirely attributed to natural causes”.
Some of the most severe damage was reported to the historic Pawnee County Bank.
No injuries or damages have been reported in Texoma.
In fact, aside from Alaska, no other state is experiencing more seismic activity than Oklahoma, according to Bellini.
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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. He said the Saturday morning quake did cause cracks and damages to city buildings, some of which date to the early 1900s.
