USGS: 4.5 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Central Oklahoma

Newsline9 ^ | 12/07/13 | Xin Xin Liu

[oxcart]

OKLAHOMA CITY -

A 4.5 magnitude earthquake rocked central Oklahoma Saturday afternoon.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake was recorded at 12:10 p.m. Its epicenter was located four miles northwest of Jones, seven miles east of Edmond, nine miles north, northwest of Choctaw, and 14 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.

It was about five miles deep.

Residents across Oklahoma reported feeling the earthquake just after 12 p.m. Saturday. It lasted several seconds.

News 9 viewers in many Oklahoma cities, including Oklahoma City, Edmond, Stillwater, Tulsa, Harrah, Mustang, and Guthrie, reported feeling the earthquake.

We also felt it right here at our News 9 station in Oklahoma City.

[madison10]

Oh, I know the Oklahoma quake wasn’t related to the New Madrid. Two different fault lines. The Great Lakes will turn into the Great Leaks. :)

Just wait until that Super Volcano blows at Yellowstone.

[WildHighlander57]

Re: “big ones” in L.A.

Which ones did you go thru, sylmar, whittier narrows, landers, or northridge?

[Kenny Bunk]

In re LA, Which ones did you go thru, Went through the wars 1982-1996. Lost a house in Flores Canyon Fire, which I actually saw on TV in Europe (in a bar) and had the ground go wonky on a place in Santa Monica in '94.

House looked fine, ground underneath split eventually, causing place to be condemned.

[Old Yeller]

Oklahoma has it’s own faults?

That's ok. Nobody's perfect. Unless you ask a Texan.

[Smokin' Joe]

The Big One on the New Madrid fault was felt several states away - another big one on the NM will be devastating.

IIRC, it was credited with ringing church bells in New England.

[Smokin' Joe]

By the time you are close enough to the surface to worry about a water table, there are usually at least two layers of casing (and cement) between the active wellbore and the surrounding rock.

Fracking is the process of shattering the rock at depth to enhance production (just in the pay zone) by pumping in high pressure fluid and something (usually sand) to prop the fractures open. It is a short term process, not ongoing. Production pressures are usually considerably less, and pushing upward against the pressure exerted by the weight of the fluid column in the well, so by the time you get to the surface, the well may not even flow that high on its own and you have to pump the oil out.

[RBStealth]

thats more than I knew before, thanks

[Smokin' Joe]

Any time. I've been working in the oil industry on wellsite since '79. Fracking is terribly misunderstood by most journalists (I have never seen one get the process completely right), and there are glaring errors and/or misconceptions in almost every account of drilling horizontal wells and taking them to completion I have read.

Most of the guys who work out here (North Dakota) live out here, and are raising families, even though there are a lot of new transplants. We want our kids to have clean air and water, too, and many from this region farm or ranch here as well. Keeping the land viable for generations to come is foremost.

[Elsie]

Maybe the coldness of the ground and contracting?

I'd hate to be a contractor, putting in footings below the frost line in THAT state!

[Elsie]

... can a large earthquake bust a bunch of fracking casings...

No.

[Elsie]

Around here we have the Mt. Carmel fault.

[Elsie]

Oh?

[Elsie]

Good luck...I’ve seen quakes so violent cars were bouncing off their wheels in parking lots..

WOW!

But I'll bet you meant to say the cars were bouncing off the PAVEMENT in the lots. ;^)

[Elsie]

Good luck...I’ve seen quakes so violent cars were bouncing off their wheels in parking lots..

Ya get a bunch of lowriders together and the cars will do this without an earthquake!

[RBStealth]

... can a large earthquake bust a bunch of fracking casings...

>No.

ignorant response

[Travis T. OJustice]

I'd hate to be a contractor, putting in footings below the frost line in THAT state!,

I'd LOVE to be a contractor, putting in footings below the frost line in THAT state! Well, i'd manage from my world headquarters right here.

[madison10]

Not THAT sort of contracting. LOL

[COBOL2Java]

Out in LALA-land, 4.5 would go unnoticed, unfelt, and definitely unremarked. Call in with 6.5 or better.

Apples and oranges. LALA-land is like a pie crust, tectonic-wise. You need at least a 6.5 to make a difference. The midwest plate and the east plate are like church bells. Tectonic shifts ring, and it doesn't take much. That's why a small quake in northern Quebec is felt all the way down in Baltimore. I always get a kick out of folks in LALA-land who snicker at 4.5's or less out east.

[Kenny Bunk]

LALA-land is like a pie crust, tectonic-wise.......
always get a kick out of folks in LALA-land who snicker at 4.5's or less out east.

I stand corrected. Not to mention ashamed at my callousness!

I am presently seeking funding from my fellow FReepers to fly (1st Class) to the side of any American Citizen suffering through a massive 4.5 quake. I shall hold hands with the victims and sing Koom-Bye-Yah until they stop quivering.

[Kenny Bunk]

...Around here we have the Mt. Carmel fault....

I am sure the Religious Thread Moderator will have something to say about that, as it only affects Roman Catholics.