Oklahoma's seismic activity may not be over, experts say

[Momof3angels]

The 5.6 magnitude earthquake that shook the state Saturday night did not cause significant damage nor have any serious injuries been reported — but the seismic activity may be far from over, scientists said.

The brunt of damage has been reported in Lincoln County, the epicenters of recent quakes, and in adjacent Pottawatomie County.
Minor damage to 12 homes was reported, and a stretch of U.S. 62 buckled in Lincoln County, said authorities. One building on the campus of St. Gregory's University in Shawnee also was damaged.

After the main shock, there were 12 temblors registering at magnitudes of 3.0 or higher and more than 70 quakes with magnitudes of 1.0 to 2.5, Oklahoma Geological Survey research scientist Amie Gibson said Sunday.

Those quakes — often known as aftershocks — are defined after the fact. A 4.7 magnitude earthquake that hit at 2:12 a.m. Saturday was initially thought to be the main shock until the 5.6 magnitude quake struck later in the day. That defined the earlier event as a foreshock, Gibson said.

“They're all individual earthquakes. People like to lump them in. It kind of helps people understand the sequence of events,” she said.
While scientists cannot predict earthquakes, Gibson said she would be surprised if they suddenly stopped considering the high amount of seismic activity over the weekend.

“With the pattern we're looking at, I don't see it stopping anytime immediately soon. I'd like it to stop, but I don't see that happening right now,” she said.

“We really hope that the 5.6 was the main shock because I don't want to see anything like that again, personally. It would be ignorant to assume anything right now, because who would assume that we'd have the two biggest ones in one day?” Gibson said.

Record-breaker

Before Saturday night, the strongest earthquake recorded was April 9, 1952, in El Reno, according to the geological survey. Its magnitude was 5.5.

U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Don Blakeman said the agency doesn't know why Saturday's quakes struck so close together.

He said Oklahoma sits in the middle of the North American plate, which sometimes can build up pressure that would trigger an earthquake.
Oklahoma Natural Gas spokesman Don Sherry said that no ruptured gas pipelines have been reported.

“Pipelines are designed to withstand a lot of that stress. It doesn't appear that we've had any significant operation difficulties,” Sherry said.

Read more here: Oklahoma's seismic activity may not be over, experts say | NewsOK.com

[Meg]

Praying for Oklahoma... May the Lord have mercy on all you folks, especially the elderly and those with young children.

[Momof3angels]

And the experts were right. We just had another earthquake, this time it was 4.7 in magnitude. Plus, we're having severe weather today, with tornadoes earlier this afternoon.

Life just gets funner and funner in this neck o' the woods.

[Keeplookinup]

And the experts were right. We just had another earthquake, this time it was 4.7 in magnitude. Plus, we're having severe weather today, with tornadoes earlier this afternoon.

Life just gets funner and funner in this neck o' the woods.

Yep, this time I felt it here in McKinney, TX! The couch shook and something in the room rattled. I thought I was imagining it. Very weird!

[Sean Osborne]

These OK quakes are very strange indeed. There have been over 30 of them in the past four days, and all of them are at the same virtual depth - 3 miles deep give or take 528 feet. These quakes are literally one piled on top of the next, piled on top of the next, piled on top of the next and so on. No kidding... this is the strangest series of earthquakes I have ever looked at. Most are Mag 2-something to 3-something, but there have been two M4.7 and a M5.6 quake

Look...



Here's the list

Very, very strange.

[Sean Osborne]

But wait, it gets even stranger still...

Extraordinary radar image captures flight of birds and bugs in the moment that an earthquake struck Oklahoma


Before the quake: The radar system, marked by the yellow X, is 70 miles south of where the 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit in Prague



Flying birds: The significant green display in the centre is identified as birds and bugs flying just as the earthquake hit Saturday evening

[IamPJ]

Wow...that is weird.

[Momof3angels]

Yep, things are getting curiouser and curiouser here...

quakenado.jpg

[anath]

Could be that the pressure is coming from the New Madrid in Arkansas?

[WKUHilltopper]

Stacked up earthquakes? That is very strange.

[bearycool]

Hmm, looks like there have been some new earthquakes there today.


MAG UTC DATE-TIME
y/m/d h:m:s LAT
deg LON
deg DEPTH
km LOCATION
MAP 3.6 2011/11/08 19:05:17 35.535 -96.797 5.1 9 km ( 5 mi) SSE of Sparks, OK
MAP 4.7 2011/11/08 02:46:57 35.541 -96.754 5.0 9 km ( 5 mi) NW of Prague, OK

[Robert]

The poor folks there must be terrified; my heart goes out to them.

[Momof3angels]

The poor folks there must be terrified; my heart goes out to them.

Robert, we're both frightened and trying to handle it with humor. depend.jpg

Yesterday, someone told me that the New Madrid fault will someday split Oklahoma and Texas directly in two and the Gulf of Mexico will rush in, making our land essentially beach front property. Has anyone else heard about that?

[desert_iguana]

The Weather Channel mentioned this today or yesterday (I forget when). I believe they were trying to attribute these OK quakes to the fracking that is going on there. I am not familiar with this process, but I'm not buying it. Even if it were the cause of the quakes, Jesus didn't specify what would be the cause...He just said there will be 'earthquakes in diverse places' as one of the birth pangs near the end of the age.

[SonSeeker]

But wait, it gets even stranger still...

Extraordinary radar image captures flight of birds and bugs in the moment that an earthquake struck Oklahoma


Before the quake: The radar system, marked by the yellow X, is 70 miles south of where the 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit in Prague



Flying birds: The significant green display in the centre is identified as birds and bugs flying just as the earthquake hit Saturday evening

I don't think this is all that strange. It's been known or at least suspected that animals have some kind of 'sense' about natural catastrophes, even before they occur. It would serve us well if more was known about this phenomenon.

[WKUHilltopper]

Yesterday, someone told me that the New Madrid fault will someday split Oklahoma and Texas directly in two ?

That might be true, but I don't think so. I mean that's the first I've heard of that--and I grew up fairly close to the New Madrid fault. We had tremors all the time where I grew up. The New Madrid fault is pretty much around the Missouri, Tennessee, Illinois and Kentucky borders. It probably created the Mississippi River. In 1811-12 is when the thing really went off--worse recorded earthquake in US history (you just don't hear that much about it--because not too many people or buildings were there during that time).

It was so big it changed the course of the Mississippi River and caused it to flow backwards. It was reported it caused church bells to ring in Boston. And the river cut off part of KY (putting it on the Missouri side of the river) where Missouri then claimed it as part of Missouri. For a century, Kentuckians and Missourians fired shots at each other--KY trying to reclaim the land and Missouri insisting it was theirs...finally a court said it was KY's. Really the only place where KY's borders extend beyond a river (except for a little part on the Ohio bordering Indiana--thanks to river changes).

I don't know if the OK fault has anything to do with New Madrid--it could, I guess, but I've never heard that it did (maybe a new discovery?).