An quake that geologists say appears to be the largest in Oklahoma’s history rattled buildings and woke residents across the state Saturday morning, causing one minor injury and damage to several buildings.
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The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which since 2013 has asked wastewater-well owners to reduce disposal volumes in parts of the state, directed about 35 wells within an approximately 500-square-mile area around the epicenter to shut down within seven to 10 days because of previous connections between the injection of wastewater and earthquakes.
Saturday’s quake was centered about 9 miles northwest of Pawnee, Oklahoma, which has a population of about 2,200.
Oklahoma has suddenly become a seismic state over the last decade, as an abundance of small earthquakes has accompanied the expanded use of deep injection wells.
The primary cause for human-induced earthquakes in many parts of the central and eastern United States is wastewater disposal, according to a USGS report published in March.
“We estimate that at any one time, there are about 3,200 active disposal wells”, commission spokesman Matt Skinner said.
Bridges in the area of the quake were cleared to drive on Sunday, but officials were still inspecting dams and assessing buildings that could have been impacted by the quake and the four aftershocks that followed.
For some tri-state residents, Saturday morning got off to a bumpy start in a very literal sense.
And in 2015 alone, the central US experienced 1,010 earthquakes.
A 5.6 magnitude quake rattled people in six states around 7:00 a.m. local time on Saturday.
We are getting lots of of reports of buildings with bricks that came off and broken windows, said Dede Pershall, the Pawnee police and fire dispatcher.
Other people who felt the quake, he said, reported items knocked off shelves and ceiling fans swaying back and forth. “The disposal wells dispose into the state’s deepest formation, the Arbuckle formation, which is right above what we call the basement”, Skinner said. The United States Geological Service said the quake happened at 7:02 a.m. and the aftershock was felt locally shortly after.
Oklahoma’s energy and environment office posted a statement on its website, Earthquakes in Oklahoma, pointing part of the blame at wastewater created by oil drilling.
“It’s heartbreaking to see what has happened in my beloved home state, and I want to extend my thoughts and prayers to everyone here in Oklahoma, and those from Texas to Nebraska who suffered and were rattled by this morning’s natural disaster”, Sierra Club Oklahoma chapter director Johnson Bridgwater said. It originated near Pawnee, Oklahoma, but it was felt in Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, and multiple other states.
Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand.
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Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk. Now that we have seen one significant quake, there is no question that it will not be the last.
