DisastersOklahoma hit by six earthquakes in four days
On Sunday residents of Oklahoma were shook by their sixth earthquake in four days; these quakes come in the wake of Oklahoma’s strongest earthquake on record, which struck the state on 5 November; the 5.6 magnitude tremor damaged dozens of homes and caused a freeway to buckle
Damage from Oklahoma's sixth earthquake in four days // Source: carbonated.tv
On Sunday residents of Oklahoma were shook by their sixth earthquake in four days.
So far all of the earthquakes have been relatively minor, and the most recent quake, which measured 3.2 on the Richter scale, did not cause any damage.
The series of tremors began last Thursday with a 3.7 magnitude earthquake and was followed by three more on Friday and one 2.4 magnitude quake on Saturday.
These quakes come in the wake of Oklahoma’s strongest earthquake on record, which struck the state on 5 November. The 5.6 magnitude tremor damaged dozens of homes and caused a freeway to buckle.
Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center, said Oklahomans have nothing to fear about the recent increase in seismic activity.
“It’s been going on for quite a while,” Blakeman said. “We don’t know exactly why it occurs, but it doesn’t indicate that anything huge and terrible is going to happen.”
Oklahoma is situated along the center of the North American tectonic plate, which has a few fault lines running through the state, but is not as volatile as Japan or California which are located where plates rub together.
According to Austin Holland, a research seismologist with the Oklahoma Geological Survey, for the past two years there has been an increase in earthquake activity in the state. Holland theorizes that several factors could be at fault including the extraction of oil and gas from underground sources.
“It keeps me up at night,” Holland said. He added that others had no need to fear. “It’s because I’m curious.”
