What's with all the earthquakes lately? (Oklahoma City, Kansas: how much, living in, fence)

[flintysooner]

Originally Posted by NorwegianViking

Thanks for posting this very interesting information. I have been wanting to move from Texas to Oklahoma, but honestly, the earthquakes that have been happening in Oklahoma have given me second thoughts. On another forum, one person said that the drilling for oil and gas has caused more quakes to happen since they are pumping massive amounts of water into the ground. Have any sink holes been noticed there? I noticed that Oklahoma City has had around 3.+ quakes every week now for the past 2-3 weeks. I would really be interested in knowing exactly where that unfound fault line is that marks where the two land masses joined ages ago. Thanks again for the post.

My oily geologist friends tell me it is unlikely that oil and gas activity is the cause of the recent swarm. I have no idea and really didn't enjoy geology in college all that much. Besides we just hiked all over the Arbuckles near Davis. I do know that there is a lot known about Oklahoma geology. On the other hand those geologist friends don't always find oil and gas either.

There have been a couple of sinkholes recently reported on Oklahoma City television news. Strangely enough they were on streets which makes me think it is not very likely caused by earthquake activity. Then again not much interest in reporting sinkholes out in the pasture. Definitely are some big dry ground fissures out in the pasture.

The only known fault in Oklahoma is the Meers fault near Lawton (well, actually Meers I guess) but search here: Database Search

Problem with unknown faults of course is that they are unknown. Like the Haiti fault though we may not like knowing when we "recognize" it.

However, thanks to all the recent activity the folks who study stuff like this are putting out a whole bunch more sensors and devoting time to study.

The only earthquake I remember feeling in Oklahoma was the 5.5 near El Reno in 1952 when I was nearly 4.

Wouldn't personally worry much about Oklahoma earthquakes as part of a decision tree on moving here.

[NorwegianViking]

Thanks, Flintysoonner, for your response about the Oklahoma quakes. I was wondering this morning about that unknown fault again. I really think that the Mississippi River is a giant fault line that runs north to south separating the U.S, but I have no proof. Do you think that it could be where the two land masses came together to form the U.S.? I wonder if the "unknown" fault, spoken of in the earlier post, might run east to west? When I looked at the Meers fault line one time, as I recall, it runs east to west.

Thanks for your encouragement about moving to Oklahoma. I did get my Oklahoma teaching certificate about a half year ago and am looking for a teaching position.

This is a really nice site. I haven't yet learned all the "ins and outs" of posting here, but I hope to catch on soon. Is there a box to check somewhere that will send an automatic email when someone replies or posts to a thread? Thanks and I hope you are having a nice weekend.

[StillwaterTownie]

Just don't move to Jones, OK.

[flintysooner]

Leonard Geophysical Observatory - Recent Earthquakes

9-04-2010: 6
9-03-2010: 1
9-01-2010: 6

[flintysooner]

The Daily Mail reports that the New Zealand quake opened a new fault line.
New Zealand earthquake moves Earth's surface '11ft to the right' | Mail Online

Not exactly Oklahoma City related but interesting in a general sense.

[mkfarnam]

After living in California and right on top of the San Andeas fault line, the only earthquakes that has been in Oklahoma are called "tremors" in SoCal.
With a tremor you either feel a shake or you feel the ground roll under your feet, in 2 seconds it's over. The most frequent quakes I've experienced were tremors or the house shook, a picture fell off the wall and it was over.
There were bigger one wher buildings dropped, roofs caved in, Dams broke and freeways collapsed. But those are rare, not even close to the frequency of an average Oklahoma tornado.
I don't understand why anyone in OK are even worried about them
I'm just saying....these "OK earthquakes" if you want to call them that, are really nothing to worry about.
Also...if there was an actual "fault line here, you'd be having earthquakes like California.....in other words, you'd know it.

[flintysooner]

I guess what's kind of interesting about it other than the rarity is that we are so far from any kind of tectonic plate boundary. That has to make one wonder about the cause and/or the shortcomings of our theories. We are always learning.

[_redbird_]

Originally Posted by mkfarnam

I don't understand why anyone in OK are even worried about them
I'm just saying....these "OK earthquakes" if you want to call them that, are really nothing to worry about.
Also...if there was an actual "fault line here, you'd be having earthquakes like California.....in other words, you'd know it.

I agree MK. Is it Meers that has the seismograph? We used to go to Griffith Park Observatory and watch the activity live.

And yes, there will always be some zealot who will come along and say GOD is behind it all. Whatever. Earthquakes are normal as floods, storms, tornadoes, etc. Always been around long before humans and will be long after.

[FreshHat]

Statistically, the frequency of global earthquakes is pretty constant.

Nowadays, every earth tremor makes it on to the TV news, anything from security cam videos, to full blown 'round the clock coverage, like the Haiti quake, so they seem more numerous and severe.Not so long ago, entire towns in Iran, China and Turkey were obliterated in various quakes, but without cameras, those decades old newspaper headlines are largely forgotten by most.

The Earth has a molten core, and earthquakes will naturally occur for eons, as they have since our planet's creation. Nothing divine/supernatural or human about it.

[mkfarnam]

Originally Posted by FreshHat

Statistically, the frequency of global earthquakes is pretty constant.

Nowadays, every earth tremor makes it on to the TV news, anything from security cam videos, to full blown 'round the clock coverage, like the Haiti quake, so they seem more numerous and severe.Not so long ago, entire towns in Iran, China and Turkey were obliterated in various quakes, but without cameras, those decades old newspaper headlines are largely forgotten by most.

The Earth has a molten core, and earthquakes will naturally occur for eons, as they have since our planet's creation. Nothing divine/supernatural or human about it.

I don't think there's been any "epicenters or Hypocenters" have been found in this area, and thats where an eathquake starts.
Now if OK had rocky ground, Mountains, valleys and rocky canyons, that would be a different story. We may have been feeling the "after shocks" from small quakes that may have took place up around the Ozarks or Appalachians.
Until an earthquake with a 7.0 magnitude is reported, you have no need to worry.
I kinda liked feeling those rolling tremors. It was like when you give a long rug one shake and you see the hump roll through it.

This might give you a better idea about earthquakes.
Earthquake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia