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The Kitchen Table

Oklahoma Earthquakes

12 years ago

What's with all the small earthquakes in central Oklahoma? I see that 5 quakes of magnitude 2 to 3 have occurred over the past couple of days. These are small, but has anyone felt these? Anyone hazard a guess what is the cause? Are these associated with a known fault?

I have a suspicion what these may be, but I'd like to hear for the local experts, you.

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Comments (11)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
12 years ago
It looks like there has been dozens of small quakes in your state over the last few days!
OklaMoni
12 years ago
They are a daily occurrence now. My daughter bought earthquake insurance and scrapped the idea of a tornado shelter. She is afraid she could be trapped in there.

Moni
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Comments (13)
Earthquakes do happen here in Oklahoma, Bon, although historically they have not been as common in recent decades as they have been the last few years. They just tend to be smaller, less damaging and not as news-worthy as the big quakes in other places like California. There is a recorded history of earthquakes in Oklahoma, and I know that one of the fault lines in OK runs through the Paul's Valley area and down into Carter County and Love County. Earthquakes that did minor damage were reported in south-central OK as recently as the 1950s. I've seen lists of prior earthquakes in OK that dated back to around statehood or even earlier, although for the time prior to statehood, records weren't kept so the New Madrid fault line quake from the late 1800s was simply assumed to have been felt in OK because of its proximity to our state. I'll try to find that document about our earthquake history and link it. Lots of people think the current swarm of earthquakes are related to the injection wells used for water disposal by oil companies during the fracking process. Recentlly we started having small earthquakes here in our county, not too long after a new water injection well went into use. To make a long story short, the owner of that injection well, who is a local resident/businessman with an outstanding reputation as a good citizen, suspended the use of the injection well because of the earthquakes. At the time, I believe he said he was suspending use of the well until it could be determined whether or not the recent earthquakes in our county were related to the use of his disposal well. If his well was causing the earthquakes, he did not want for it to continue to happen. I don't think we have had an earthquake here since then. They have been fracking in Texas significantly longer than they have been doing it here, and in the areas where it is a widespread practice, not only are earthquakes occurring, but some residents' water wells are messed up. Some people have gas that has infiltrated their well water and they can hold up a match to the water as it comes out of the faucet and the water ignites (well, technically it is the gas that is igniting). Others have water that smells really bed or tastes really bad, and they no longer can use the water from their own wells. These issues with the well water only developed after fracking and disposal wells were put into use in areas near those water wells. One family that is having water well trouble lives less than a mile from my brother and two miles from my mom, so I have been following that story for a few years now. When they started using fracking here in Love County, Tim and I knew what to expect because we had seen what was occurring in Texas in communities with lots of disposal wells and we said "here come the earthquakes". Sadly, this is just what happened. The energy industry wants to deny the link, but while everyone argues over it, the fracking goes on and the earthquakes continue. Governments, whether local, state or national make a lot of tax money off the gas wells so they'd prefer not to look too closely at whether fracking is causing the earthquakes. I think that the injection, under pressure, of millions of gallons of water into disposal wells drilled into the earth might not cause earthquakes in areas not already prone to them, but I do think it increases earthquake activity in areas with known fault lines and a history of earthquakes. I've linked an article that gives a good summary of the history of earthquakes in Oklahoma in the era prior to fracking. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Oklahoma's Earthquake History
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We felt the 4.7 earthquake on Thursday here in central Kansas that started in Oklahoma. Kansas began the week on Monday with late-season tornadoes in western Kansas, followed by 18-inch + blizzard conditions on Tuesday, and an earthquake on Thursday.
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For Faron and others, if you want to search earthquake activity in your locale, or anywhere in the world, the USGS has a cool map that allows you to do so http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/ Use the settings in the upper right to search for big, small, etc, quakes. On the map that Annie posted, the size of the dot relates to the size of the quake. The color is usually related to how long ago it happened. I agree this is a wake up call! Congress has managed to set things up so that fracking cannot be overseen by any Federal agency. There can be state-level regulations only. So, Oklahoma, how's that working out for you? It will be interesting to see how it shakes out (pun intended) and if there are policy changes because of this. Glad everyone is in good shape, and that pets and chandeliers are all OK!
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Comments (11)
And according to USGS, the incidence of quakes has risen dramatically. "Within the central and eastern United States, the number of earthquakes has increased dramatically over the past few years. Between the years 1973–2008, there was an average of 21 earthquakes of magnitude three and larger in the central and eastern United States. This rate jumped to an average of 99 M3+ earthquakes per year in 2009–2013, and the rate continues to rise. In 2014, alone, there were 659 M3 and larger earthquakes. Most of these earthquakes are in the magnitude 3–4 range, large enough to have been felt by many people, yet small enough to rarely cause damage. There were reports of damage from some of the larger events, including the M5.6 Prague, Oklahoma earthquake and the M5.3 Trinidad, Colorado earthquake." Links OK orders shutdown of 37 wells Seriously though, please stay safe. My guess is that your homes haven't been earthquake retrofitted either? Very worrisome.
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Zipper_TX
12 years ago
In my opinion it's caused by fracking. :(
Yes, sometimes I do feel them and I live across the river in Texas. Because I'm a Christian, I also think it's supposed to be happening, but I realize a lot of people aren't and don't think that's part of the scheme of things so I won't offer up a reason I believe this :)

Again, this it just IMHO!
susanjf_gw
12 years ago
found this..and I really don't think it's in the realm of Above, but really stupid, greedy, men....

Here is a link that might be useful: http://rt.com/usa/oklahoma-earthquakes-fracking-wells-826/
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
12 years ago
IT has been going on for a while now and some have been sizable and felt for several miles.
It is the fracking no doubt. Till they have some really big one that destroys stuff or kills someone they just seem to ignore them.

I was only in one Earthquake, back when I lived in Memphis. It was a fairly big one. The cabinets opened and all my pots came flying out. I was standing in the bathroom and the walls looked like they were doing the wave up and down. I thought I was hallucinating till the shaking started. I was the first one in the house to realize it was a quake. I screamed "Earthquake" and went running outside everyone following then I stopped and said wait I don't think you are supposed to go outside in a quake.
That was about the time it stopped shaking. A few minor after shakes happened. Really gave us something to talk about for a while. Memphis is on a rather large fault line.
Don't care to go through that again.
kayjones
12 years ago
Perhaps this can answer some questions - it's a good site for information on earthquakes here in the USA:

http://marthapeveto.org/2013/03/29/new-madrid-fault-when-will-it-snap/

Here is a link that might be useful: Will your state part of the 'new' coastline?
jemdandy
Original Author
12 years ago
It was my guess that these small quakes were associated with the oil and gas industry. These can be caused by "fracking" and "water driving". The pratice of water drive has been used since about 1970 in Illinois and other places. When a field of well begin to dimish production and if these are in a well defined 'dome', it was found that if water was forced into the wells in the outer perimeter of the field, it would force what little remaining oil there was toward the central wells. It could extend the prodcutive life of a few wells by 5 to 10 years. A side benifit: It was a place to dump the waste water/brine from the producing wells. In Illinois, this practice has not caused any major earth movements. However, it has been documented that water drives in the Colorado oil fields were the cause of earthquakes. A geologist ran an experiment to show that the quakes could be turned on or off by activating or deactivating water drives.

Thus, it was my hunch that fracking and/or water drives may be the driver of the swarm of small quakes in central Oklanoma.

The longer duration quake in Menphis mentioned above was likely associated with the New Madrid fault zone. In 1811 - 1812, it produced three very large earthqaukes and many aftershocks, and likley was the largest ever released in the US over the last 300 years. That zone continues to shake to day. Reelfoot lake in Tennessee was created during those quakes. it is a slump zone depression that filled with ground water.

The new Madrid quakes was instrumental in the rapid rise of steam boats on the Mississippi river and it tributaries, but that is another story.
chisue
12 years ago
So, that fault is pronounced "MAD-rid", right -- nothing like the city in Spain? I've gotten peculiar looks in Kentucky when I asked directions to "Vehr-sigh" (Versailles). It's Verr-SALES to them as live there.
murraysmom Zone 6a OH
12 years ago
And Milan, Indiana is MI-len. I think there are a couple of other towns like that, but can't think of them right now.
dedtired
12 years ago
There's a town in NJ called Buena, pronounced Byoo-na..

I wonder if PA will be having earthquakes upstate. Plenty of fracking going on up there.
bob_cville
12 years ago
Lima in Ohio is pronounced like the bean, not like the city in Peru.

ravencajun wrote:

It is the fracking no doubt. Till they have some really big one that destroys stuff or kills someone they just seem to ignore them.

More likely, with the first big one, they'll deny any responsibility, claim it was natural, and continue fracking. and for the second, and the third, and the tenth. And eventually if any given incident that causes damage is conclusively determined to have been caused by a specific company's fracking, and they are to be held accountable, that company will be found to be an empty shell corporation with no actual assets (their equipment will all be leased, they won't own any of the land or the oil or gas) the company will declare bankruptcy. Another will spring up and it will continue.

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