Posted on 03/22/2014 8:43:05 PM PDT by Star Traveler
Edited on 03/23/2014 5:41:00 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
LANGSTON, Okla. (AP) -- The U.S. Geological Survey has recorded 14 earthquakes in Oklahoma since about 9:30 p.m. Friday, the largest being a magnitude 4.0.
The 4.0 magnitude quake was recorded at 10:05 p.m. Friday about seven miles south of Langston. Three other quakes of magnitude 2.9, 3.0 and 3.3 were recorded Saturday afternoon in the Medford area.
(Excerpt) Read more at okcfox.com ...
Ok that hurts.
That's what I was wondering, though it looks like some sort of FX (special effects) it's convincing enough to make one wonder.
Jack...are you going to tell us?
woops. beat me to it. thanks, Jack. Much appreciate it. Good clip, though disturbing.
You have to read the article. Otherwise, I’m Sgt. Schulz on this!
I think it is Global Warming... I mean Climate Change!!
“Three Dog Night - grossly underrated”
Not nearly as under rated as Hoyt Axton.
There are small quakes in the Arbuckles all the time, article must be part of some campaign to get some mo’ Grant Money from Uncle.
But remember...the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain...
Over the past year, the towns just West of I35 and North of Fort Worth have experienced many low magnitude quakes. The TX Legislature has directed a study to try and determine the cause, because the ever-present opponents of fracking are trying to blame that for the quakes. ...No proof that fracking causes quakes.
The ladies are insane there, and they sure know how to use it.
Here is a guy - “Dutchsense” - who called the Fukishima quake and tsunami to within a couple of days well in advance along with several others - he has a system that seems to be worth keeping an eye on. You might find him interesting as I do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH7Ngac-2Zc&list=UUHE92x768p8h-fMrqhsnE1Q
Dutch is pretty sure that the OK quake cluster is fracking related, but the jury is still out as to whether it might not be a good thing that stresses are being relieved a little bit at a time - lots of little quakes - which might prevent a major quake later on.
He is warning that we should expect to see more seismic activity along the East Coast and possibly in the New Madrid area as well any time now.
Sometimes you can hear things creaking and cracking days prior to an event...In real big ones cars bounce off their tires in parking lots...
Brick and mason are the first to crumble...Fortunately the wooden stucco structures in places like CA bend and give...but the real old fireplaces go....Had a friend once in the mountains see his stream start flowing from almost dry, just prior to one.
That’s a lot of quakes for a region not known for this kind of frequency.
Hope ya all can avoid any cataclysmic event!
Probably caused by Penn State and/or Minnesota.
He’s using EQ3D software. There is a free version at http://www.wolton.net/quake.html
I’m using the iPad app. Good stuff!
When doing a search I spotted this ...
Exploring the Link Between Earthquakes and Oil and Gas Disposal Wells
Oklahoma has experienced a major increase in earthquakes in recent years, including one biggie that damaged 200 buildings — and measured 5.6 magnitude — in November 2011. Swarms of quakes have continued in 2013.
ARE THE EARTHQUAKES RELATED TO OIL AND GAS DRILLING?
Several scientists have suggested that disposal wells, used to dispose of waste from some oil and gas drilling operations — including hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — could be the cause of the recent spike.
More than 10,000 underground injection wells were active in Oklahoma as of January 2013, data from the state Corporation Commission show. About 6,000 of these wells are a type of injection well used for enhanced oil recovery, says the commission’s injection well manager Charles Lord.
The remaining 4,400 are disposal wells used to store drilling waste, Lord says. Most of these disposal wells store waste between 10,000 and 20,000 feet underground.
WHO ARE THESE SCIENTISTS AND WHAT HAVE THEY FOUND?
A report issued last year by the U.S. Geological Survey found that most of these new earthquakes have taken place near active injection wells. Geophysicist William Ellsworth, the lead author of the report, wrote that it is completely plausible that the high water pressure often used in wastewater injections could nudge previously dormant faults out of their “locked” positions. The quakes, he wrote, are “almost certainly manmade.”
Scientists at Columbia University came to a similar conclusion after studying a rare 4.0 earthquake that took place in Ohio in 2011. The findings prompted state officials to enact broad new regulations and halt the use of any injection wells near faults. Regulators also shut down injection wells in Arkansas that same year following a cluster of quakes there, including one that measured 4.7 on the Richter scale.
University of Oklahoma seismologist Katie Keranen, who has studied a 5.6 earthquake that hit Oklahoma in November 2011, found the link between the “zone of injection” and the seismic activity “compelling.” There are three deep injection wells within two-and-a-half miles of that quake’s epicenter, according to Energy Wire.
None of these reports have claimed to have absolute proof that the two are linked. In other words, there is no scientific certainty surrounding the phenomenon.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates oil and gas activity in the state, points to that fact to explain its current “wait-and-see” approach. To date, Oklahoma does not have any regulations regarding injection wells and fault lines. Spokesman Matt Skinner says the commission is “keeping an open mind” about the recent and ongoing research.
http://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/tag/earthquakes/
I saw this article ...
Oklahoma’s Largest Earthquake ‘Potentially Triggered’ by Smaller Disposal Well Quake, New Study Suggests
Oil and gas industry-related waste water injection may have triggered a cascading sequence of earthquakes that culminated in Oklahoma’s largest earthquake ever recorded, the 5.7-magnitude temblor that struck near Prague in November 2011, a new peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research suggests.
If true, Oklahoma’s November 2011 earthquake — which injured two people and damaged more than a dozen homes — could be the most powerful earthquake associated with waste water injection, the USGS said in a statement about the research:
The research published this week suggests that the foreshock, by increasing stresses where M5.7 mainshock ruptured, may have triggered the mainshock, which in turn, triggered thousands of aftershocks along the Wilzetta fault system, including a M5.0 aftershock on November 8, 2011.
The paper, “Observations of Static Coulomb Stress Triggering of the November 2011 M5.7 Oklahoma Earthquake Sequence,” was written by Danielle Sumy at the University of Southern California and researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey, Cornell, Brown and Columbia universities, and was published on March 7.
One of the study’s co-authors, Cornell’s Katie Keranen, wrote a March 2013 paper in Geology that also linked oil and gas disposal wells to the Prague earthquake. Other peer-reviewed research has linked earthquakes in Oklahoma and other states to oil and gas.
The epicenters of the November 2011 earthquakes were located near disposal wells, but proximity alone isn’t enough to make the link: About 80 percent of the state is located within 9 miles of one of Oklahoma’s 4,000 active disposal wells, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey. In the new study, the researchers modeled the stresses of the Wilzetta fault line near Prague and concluded that the manner in which the quake sequence progressed and the shallow depth of the quakes, when combined with proximity to disposal wells, points to fluid injection.
“The observation that a human-induced earthquake can trigger a cascade of earthquakes, including a larger one, has important implications for reducing the seismic risk from wastewater injection,” USGS seismologist and study co-author Elizabeth Cochran said in a statement about the research.
Oklahoma has experienced an exponential increase in earthquakes, which many federal and university researchers think is likely linked to disposal wells oil and gas operators use for waste fluid disposal. This waste fluid is produced by hydraulic fracturing — “fracking” — and other types of drilling. Operators inject the waste into the wells, where it’s stored deep underground and away from water supplies.
Other states like Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio and Texas have experienced earthquakes linked to disposal wells, and most have passed rules or laws that address the risk to public safety. No such rules are being considered in Oklahoma, but in September 2013 the Corporation Commission, the state’s oil and gas regulator, ordered a disposal well operator in south-central Oklahoma to reduce the pressure and volume of waste fluid injection after a swarm of earthquakes struck near Marietta in Love County.
The Corporation Commission on Thursday will consider new rules that would require operators of some disposal operators to capture more pressure and volume measurements — data researchers say are vital to studying the issue.
Another theory ... :-) ...
A New Theory About What’s Causing Oklahoma’s Earthquakes
OKLAHOMA CITY - It’s been a shaky last week here in central Oklahoma, following on the heels of a shaky last year — a record-breaking year, in fact.
According to the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS), there were more than 2,800 earthquakes in Oklahoma in 2013. That’s twice the previous high, established in 2011.
The vast majority of the earthquakes aren’t strong enough to be felt, much less cause any damage. However, enough are felt and do cause minor damage that more and more Oklahomans are clamoring for an explanation as to their cause.
Joe and Mary Reneau, who live near Prague, certainly have a passing interest. Their home was devastated in November 2011’s 5.6 magnitude earthquake in Prague.
“Every corner of the house, every corner of every room was fractured,” said Joe Reneau.
Since then, the couple has read everything they can about Oklahoma’s earthquakes
“I think we deserve to know what’s causing this,” Mary insisted.
Seismologists have been studying the quakes and have offered differing theories about what’s happening. There does seem to be general consensus that oil and gas activity is playing a role in the increased seismicity, but no one can say just how big a role.
One researcher, a Tulsa geologist, is now suggesting something else may be at work — the weather and aquifers.
“Where these quakes have occurred,” explained Jean Antonides, “they all have occurred around these aquifers.”
Aquifers are essentially underground reservoirs — a body of permeable rock, through which water can pass easily. There are many in Oklahoma, and the amount of water they contain can be affected by both weather and human activity.
Antonides says his research shows that aquifers near the location of certain earthquakes had been depleted, through both drought and increased human demand, and then suddenly refilled, through intense and heavy rains.
“When you have rainfall amounts of six inches over a few day period,” Antonides pointed out, “these rainfalls cover a thousand square miles — that’s a lot of weight.”
That much new weight – potentially trillions of tons — if it’s along or across a fault, can be enough to cause an earthquake.
“If you change the weight, relative near surface, across that fault — either reducing the weight on one side, loading up the other side or vice versa,” Antonides explained, “that could be the trigger point.”
Antonides’ paper lays out evidence that this hydrologic loading could have triggered, not only the Prague earthquake, but last April’s 4.3 magnitude quake in Luther, a 5.8 M quake in Virginia in 2011, and others. University of Oklahoma research seismologist Austin Holland says he may be right.
“I think, in some cases,” Holland told us, “there’s really strong evidence that hydrologic loads can trigger earthquakes.”
Holland himself theorized the weight of the extra water in Edmond’s rain-swollen Arcadia Lake last summer may have caused the earthquakes that rattled Edmond in the fall.
“I find it difficult to comprehend,” said Joe Reneau.
The Reneaus don’t claim to be experts, but, like many, they’re convinced the quakes are somehow tied to increased oil and gas activity.
“And that this new theory about the aquifers,” said Mary Reneau, “is just the oil and gas companies’ way of diverting attention from them to something else.”
“A lot of us take offense at that,” said Antonides.
Antonides does work for an oil and gas company — New Dominion — but says his theory is based on real science and real data.
“The key is putting everything out there, and looking at all the possibilities,” Antonides insisted.
On that point, he and the Reneaus are in agreement.
“By putting it out there,” said Joe Reneau, “all the other experts will have their opportunity to question it, examine it, and reach their own conclusions.”
http://www.news9.com/story/24792205/a-new-theory-about-whats-causing-oklahomas-earthquakes
Oklahoma Wonders Why The Earth Is Shaking
An unusually high number of tremors have shaken the state lately, leading some to point their fingers at the emerging hydraulic fracturing industry, though the real culprit might be a type of wastewater storage system.
No strangers to nature’s fury, Oklahomans grow up accustomed scorching heat, blizzards, wrecking-ball thunderstorms and tornadoes. What they don’t see a lot of are earthquakes, which have been rattling the Sooner State with rare frequency of late — at least 115 earthquakes of varying intensities in the last week.
“You hear a loud ‘WAM!’ and you hear this loud rattle-rattle-rattle,” said Tracey Romberger, who lives near the center of this latest swarm of earthquakes between Oklahoma City and the town of Guthrie. She described the sound as “like somebody was dropping a bomb, or a cannon going off.”
The question on everyone’s mind is: why? The area has been seismically active since time immemorial but the latest swarm of earthquakes is unheard of. According to earthquake monitors EQ Charts, between 1990 and 2008 there were between 0 and 11 earthquakes of magnitude 2.0 or greater in Oklahoma every year. In 2009 there were 49. In 2010 there were 180. In 2013 there were 291, and so far in 2014 there have been 59-plus and counting. More than a dozen notable earthquakes have shaken north-central Oklahoma in the past three days.
“It’s incredibly unusual,” said Austin Holland, a research seismologist with the Oklahoma Geologic Survey. “We’ve had swarms that are similar in nature but I don’t think we’ve had one with quite the numbers we’ve had.”
State authorities are now trying to get the bottom of the unusual seismic activity. Holland is amassing resources and data to figure out what might be to blame, and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which oversees the oil and gas industry, has already proposed new testing and monitoring requirements for wells injected with drilling wastewater, which some have blamed for the increase in earthquakes. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking“, involving explosions being set off underground, has also been blamed by some for the swarm.
Spent drilling water injected back into the ground for storage at high pressure, some scientists believe, may be forcing fault lines under pressure to shift. Katie Keranen, a geophysics professor at Cornell, says “the evidence is strong” that the earthquakes are caused by fracking and wastewater disposal, both of which have become more frequent amid today’s boom in oil and gas drilling.
But others scoff at the notion that fracking might be connected to seismic activity. “I work with geologists and petroleum engineers on a daily basis and they are of the opinion that [fracking] is not causing the earthquakes,” said Eric King, an attorney who works with the oil and gas industry, comparing the earthquake swarm to climate fluctuations. “We didn’t have cold weather in Oklahoma for a lot of years but we’re having it this year,” he said.
It’s true that Oklahoma has a history of earthquake swarms that spike and then die down, but it’s also true that humans have caused earthquakes in the past. And previous swarms have been nowhere near as serious as this latest one. “We do know there have been some earthquakes caused by oil and gas activity in the state,” Holland, the research seismologist, said. “The hard part is figuring out which is which.”
In the meantime, Oklahoma is steeling itself for worse quakes in the future, as each earthquake increases the likelihood that a worse earthquake will follow. That’s a prospect that could put Oklahomans on edge. “It scares you a little bit,” says Romberger. “Makes you jump.”
http://time.com/8126/oklahoma-wonders-why-the-earth-is-shaking/
Take a look at this time lapse graphic of the earthquakes ... Which will give you a better sense of how they are spread throughout the state ...
A timelapse of Oklahoma earthquakes
It’s no secret that the ground beneath our feet has been shaking a bit more in recent years.
Yesterday NewsOK reported that Oklahoma had 222 earthquakes in 2013 that registered as 2.5-magnitude or greater—more than any other year in state history. As of Feb. 17, there were 63 earthquakes that were 2.5-magnitude or greater already in 2014.
Here’s a timelapse of all the 2.5-magnitude or greater earthquakes to shake Oklahoma since 2004. The radius of the circle indicates a greater magnitude.
Pause the animation and drag the slider to take a closer look at each year.
Three earthquakes shook Logan County Sunday night, ranging from 2.9-magnitude to 3.8-magnitude. Again this morning, another 3.8-magnitude quake shook Guthrie.
Data from the USGS shows that one to three 3.0-magnitude earthquakes or larger occurred annually from 1975 to 2008. But that number grew to around 40 earthquakes per year from 2009 to 2013.
The reason for the increase in earthquakes is still up for debate. Last year USGS seismologist Bill Leith suggested that the rise in quakes may not entirely be natural.
“We’ve statistically analyzed the recent earthquake rate changes and found that they do not seem to be due to typical, random fluctuations in natural seismicity rates,” he said.
http://newsok.com/a-timelapse-of-oklahoma-earthquakes/article/3934892
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