One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in Oklahoma rattled the state on Saturday morning, the United States Geological Survey said, and tremors were felt throughout the region.
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The damage is not as severe as the 2011 quake near Prague, Oklahoma, about 60 miles south of Pawnee, despite being the same magnitude and approximately the same depth below the surface.
The United States Geological Survey recorded 1,010 earthquakes of a magnitude 3.0 or greater in the region past year, a almost three-fold increase from the 318 temblors of this magnitude in 2009. Such a quake, though, is strong enough to be felt many miles away.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, a regulatory agency that examines the state’s fuel, oil, gas, public utilities and transportation industries, is “reviewing disposal wells in the vicinity of the natural disaster near Pawnee”, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said via Twitter.
“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 USGS website reported.
The number of magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes has skyrocketed in Oklahoma, from a few dozen in 2012 to more than 900 previous year.
The quake hit the area about 7:02 a.m. Oklahoma time, the U.S. Geological Survey said in a statement, adding that it was the largest in the state since 2011.
According to the report, Oklahoma residents had a 5 to 12 percent possibility of facing damaged from earthquakes.
Some parts of Oklahoma now match northern California for the nation’s most shake-prone, and one Oklahoma region has a 1 in 8 chance of a damaging quake in 2016.
Lately, Oklahomans are as wary of earthquakes as tornadoes.
The spike has put Oklahoma at the center of a national debate over whether wastewater disposal from oil and gas production triggers earthquakes. But the OGS report said fracking is responsible for only a small percentage of the total volume of wastewater injected into disposal wells. That also brings up fracking fluid and salty groundwater.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission “is working to get firmer data” to pinpoint the epicenter of the quake, said commission spokesman Matt Skinner. “So initially that’s what I was expecting, but then it lasted and continued and as seconds turned into half a minute, it started to be very alarming so I went in to check on our children and my wife and keep our family safe”. CNN reported at least one historic building had been damaged in the city. No injuries have been reported so far.
The quake was also felt in Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, and Iowa, according to the USGS.
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Pawnee city workers are checking gas lines in the city buildings, FOX23 reports.
