3 quakes of magnitude 4.0 or more hit northwest Oklahoma

A number of smaller quakes were recorded in the area Wednesday evening, and six struck Wednesday morning.

KWTV reports they were followed by at least 11 more, ranging from magnitude 3.0 to 4.0, within hours.

The 4.8-magnitude quake was the strongest in the Sooner State since the November 2011 swarm that included the state’s strongest on record, a 5.6-magnitude temblor in Prague on November 6, 2011.

So, the first week of 2016 already has produced more 4.0 quakes than the entirety of 2013. And though the records for 2015 aren’t available yet, “Estimates based on current natural disaster activity show that 2015 will likely outpace previous year levels”, according to the agency. There are no injection wells operating in the immediate vicinity of the Fairview-area quakes, said Matt Skinner, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil industry – but go about 30 miles further out, and there are a lot of them.

The quakes were felt in Kansas and the USGS says up to eight states may have been affected.

Buchanan says it’s the consensus of scientists that the earthquakes being experienced in Oklahoma and Kansas are from human activity. The second tremor was reported as a 4.8, happening at 10:28:00 pm southeast of Alva, Oklahoma.

The earthquakes represent a challenge for Oklahoma, which depends heavily on the oil and gas industry for employment and tax revenue.

Variations in state drilling laws and geography make federal regulation hard, according to one person involved in the report.

Virtually all the quakes are the result of slippage in faults that have effectively been lubricated by watery wastes from oil and gas production that have been pumped underground.

Hold on to your butts, Oklahoma: The big one’s a coming.

FOX23 viewers said on our Facebook page that they also felt the quake.