Wells closing after Oklahoma quake fraction of state’s total

The 5.6 magnitude earthquake was felt by nearby states and lasted for nearly a minute. “It was like a deep rumble”.

“By including human-induced events, our assessment of earthquake hazards has significantly increased in parts of the US”, Mark Petersen, chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project, said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The U.S.G.S. also reports a 3.6 magnitude aftershock in the same area at 7:58 a.m. “Our cat was really not having a good time”. The word from officials is that fracking is safe, and yet we are seeing now clear, concreted evidence to the contrary. Another 211 square-mile area of concern is in Osage County, Native American lands whose mineral rights fall under federal jurisdiction.

She says she felt the earthquake for about 10 to 20 seconds.

“The 5.6 magnitude earthquake that occurred in Oklahoma and was felt throughout the Midwest this morning threatened countless homes and businesses, and put lives at risk”. He said the Saturday morning quake did cause cracks and damages to city buildings, some of which date to the early 1900s.

People in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Des Moines, Iowa; and Norman, Oklahoma, all reported feeling the earthquake. “We’ve got buildings cracked”, Randell said. Weide said he and one of his daughters “heard the building start creaking” and said it “was surreal”.

Randell also said a man suffered a minor head injury when part of a fireplace fell on him as he protected a child. The man was treated and released from a hospital.

Oklahoma’s governor on Saturday declared a state of emergency for Pawnee County located near the epicenter of one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the state.

Oklahoma, a big oil and gas producer in the nation, has had an increase in earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 and greater that has been linked to underground disposal of wastewater from oil and natural gas production. Saturday’s was 3.7 miles deep, compared to 3.1 miles in 2011.

Tom Berger, director of the Dubuque County Emergency Management Agency, said the state is considering hosting some earthquake preparedness programs.

“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”. “The windows didn’t rattle or pictures shake, but my bed went up and down as the foundation went up and down”.

I haven’t been in an earthquake before but this was just a tremor and it felt really weird.

“Shortly after, the whole house started rocking”, he said.

“My chair was going about, about like this and hers was too”. “Threw stuff off cabinets and out of cabinets, broke glasses”.

Downs said she has only experienced two earthquakes and both have been in the past five years.

In February, after a large earthquake shook the state in January, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission cut back on the planned number of wells produced via fracking.

Oklahoma and Kansas had upticks in quakes in the first half of this decade.

The earthquake damaged at least one historic building in Pawnee, Oklahoma, city officials told CNN. Only three earthquakes of that size or stronger were recorded in 2009.