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Oklahoma earthquake 5.6 felt in Kansas City!

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K

Kimawolf

Member
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/earthquake-shakes-swath-midwest-missouri-oklahoma-41842405

The United States Geological Survey said a 5.6 magnitude earthquake happened at 7:02 a.m. Saturday in north-central Oklahoma, a key energy-producing region. That matches a November 2011 quake in the same region.

Geologists say damage is not likely in earthquakes below magnitude 4.0; no major damage was immediately reported Saturday.

People in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Des Moines, Iowa; and Norman, Oklahoma, all reported feeling the earthquake. Dallas TV station WFAA tweeted that the quake shook their studios, too.

Saturday's quake was centered about 9 miles northwest of Pawnee, Oklahoma, which has a population of about 2,200. Earlier this week, the same spot, which is about 70 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, saw a magnitude 3.2 temblor.

An increase in magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes in Oklahoma has been linked to underground disposal of wastewater from oil and natural gas production. State regulators have asked producers to reduce wastewater disposal volumes in earthquake-prone regions of the state. Some parts of Oklahoma now match northern California for the nation's most shake-prone, and one Oklahoma region has a 1 in 8 chance of a damaging quake in 2016, with other parts closer to 1 in 20.
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holy shit it was kind of scary. I felt it too and thought it was some kind of explosion or something. nothing fell down, but it freaked me out. Great, now humans can cause big earth quakes. Also seems now the Midwest has tornadoes and we're having just as man earthquakes as the west coast.

Imagine if the New Mandrid fault gets activated due to this shit. now im worried, can't find anyplace safe from natural disasters in the U.S.
 
D

Deleted member 231381

Unconfirmed Member
When does America plan to do something about Kansas City being in Missouri?
 
nicoga3000

nicoga3000

Saint Nic
Earthquakes are a fascinating phenomenon. I have to design for seismic loads all the time at work, and it never ceases to amaze me which regions of the US that are seismic controlled and not wind controlled. South Carolina is a VERY dangerous seismic region - not something I learned until having to design two structures there.

Indiana is surprisingly high seismic, too. Of course, the New Madird fault is to blame there.

But yeah, earthquakes can do some major damage and it's super fascinating (also scary).
 
M

MechDX

Member
NWS Houston ‏@NWSHouston 2h2 hours ago
Report from the Houston CWSU that Houston IAH control tower felt the Oklahoma earthquake. #houwx #earthquake #okquake
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Felt in Houston
 
H

HvySky

Member
Living in NE, almost every single person this morning has asked me if I felt the earthquake. Was sleeping and didn't feel shit, so apparently whenever the apocalypse happens I won't even notice it.

Hope KC-GAF is okay.
 
D

dramatis

Member
Crab said:
When does America plan to do something about Kansas City being in Missouri?
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It's a weird geographical thing where probably even most Americans don't know, but at the border of Kansas and Missouri, there's a chunk of Kansas City in Kansas and a bigger Kansas City in Missouri.

The local governments are always competing against each other lol
 
A

Askani

Member
My Facebook feed is nuts with posts about it this morning. I slept through it. I'm a little dissapointed.
 
J

JesseZao

Member
HvySky said:
Living in NE, almost every single person this morning has asked me if I felt the earthquake. Was sleeping and didn't feel shit, so apparently whenever the apocalypse happens I won't even notice it.

Hope KC-GAF is okay.
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Yeah, my dad text me that he felt it. I didn't wake up. The sleeping super fault just may rumble yet.
 
Z

Zukkoyaki

Member
While that is a solid earthquake, I'm amazed by the number of people that don't seem to realize that earthquakes occur outside of California and are exceptionally more common that many think.

For what it's worth, I live in central Missouri and didn't feel it.
 
H

hodayathink

Member
Zukkoyaki said:
While that is a solid earthquake, I'm amazed by the number of people that don't seem to realize that earthquakes occur outside of California and are exceptionally more common that many think.

For what it's worth, I live in central Missouri and didn't feel it.
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Yeah, I've felt a couple in Chicago before, and a couple more while living in Central Illinois.
 
D

djplaeskool

Member
Never forget
ntzFkJa.jpg
 
S

Saganator

Member
Zukkoyaki said:
While that is a solid earthquake, I'm amazed by the number of people that don't seem to realize that earthquakes occur outside of California and are exceptionally more common that many think.

For what it's worth, I live in central Missouri and didn't feel it.
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It's because earth quakes are a relatively new occurrence for the area, most likely caused by all the fracking.
 
Z

Zukkoyaki

Member
Saganator said:
It's because earth quakes are a relatively new occurrence for the area, most likely caused by all the fracking.
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Are they? Because I've always gotten the impression that Oklahoma does have small quakes but they've just received significantly more attention because of fracking. If I'm wrong, thanks for the correction.
 
C

Chumly

Member
Zukkoyaki said:
Are they? Because I've always gotten the impression that Oklahoma does have small quakes but they've just received significantly more attention because of fracking. If I'm wrong, thanks for the correction.
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Prior to 2009 Oklahoma had 2 earthquakes greater than a 3.0 per year. Last year they had 907........ Yes it's directly linked to fracking

But they did technically have earthquakes prior to fracking. Fracking just increased the frequency by 400 times
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Definitely felt it here in Tulsa. That was probably the biggest Earthquake I've ever felt in my life. Lasted for what seemed like a full minute.

Praise be to Governor Fallin.

Zukkoyaki said:
Are they? Because I've always gotten the impression that Oklahoma does have small quakes but they've just received significantly more attention because of fracking. If I'm wrong, thanks for the correction.
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xhsNAQH.png
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009–16_Oklahoma_earthquake_swarms
 
S

Saganator

Member
ShaggsMagoo said:
That is 100% false. People have mentioned the New Madrid fault plenty of times in the thread and Oklahoma isn't far from it.
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Sure there is a fault, I'm not denying that. But the area went from a couple dozen quakes a year to hundreds since fracking picked up in the area. You don't think there is a correlation?
 
J

JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
ShaggsMagoo said:
That is 100% false. People have mentioned the New Madrid fault plenty of times in the thread and Oklahoma isn't far from it.
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Everyone here in Oklahoma seems to think that it's a relatively new occurrence for the area...
 
K

kirblar

Member
On the cause, found this contradicting the fracking explanation. (It's still pointing to an oil industry issue, just a different one) http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-oklahoma-rise-in-quakes-linked-to-man-made-causes/

Keranen was among the first scientists to link the earthquakes to oil and gas production.

Bill Whitaker: These are man-made earthquakes.

Katie Keranen: Most people feel that the majority of these are linked to this water being disposed.

The water that's causing the earthquakes is not from fracking -- which is water and chemicals pumped underground to free up oil and gas. This is naturally occurring water that's been trapped below ground with the petroleum for millions of years.
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LaRue's disposal well is one of more than 3,000 in Oklahoma. The state created a website to explain the earthquakes -- this map shows disposal wells as blue dots. The orange dots are earthquakes. When the price of oil went over a hundred dollars a barrel in 2008, oil and gas production increased dramatically. So did the amount of wastewater and earthquakes.

Bill Whitaker: What's causing these earthquakes?

Mark Zoback: What we've learned in Oklahoma is that the earthquakes that are occurring in enormous numbers are the result of wastewater injection.

Mark Zoback is professor of geophysics at Stanford University. Zoback says there are two factors behind the earthquakes. One is the large volumes of water being disposed and the other is where it all goes: deep down into a layer of earth called the Arbuckle.

Bill Whitaker: What makes this such a good place to dispose of all that water?

Mark Zoback: Well, it's very thick. It's porous, it's permeable so it can accommodate, you know, very large injection rates.

The only problem with the Arbuckle is that it sits directly on top of the crystalline basement -- a rock layer riddled with earthquake faults.

Bill Whitaker: So this water is seeping into the faults?

Mark Zoback: The water pressure is seeping into the faults. And the fault is clamped shut and the water pressure sorta pushes the two sides of the fault apart and allows the slippage to occur today, when it might not occur for thousands of years into the future.
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They link the increase to a 2008 spike in oil/gas prices which ramped up production massively in the state.

And it's not going to get better-
Oil and gas is Oklahoma's largest industry -- you can see its importance to the state from the oil rig in front of the Capitol. In recent years, companies like SandRidge, Chesapeake, New Dominion and Devon Energy have employed nearly one of six workers in Oklahoma. All the companies declined to provide someone to speak to us. For years, Gov. Mary Fallin was skeptical the quakes were connected to oil and gas production. But as the number of quakes skyrocketed, she created an advisory council in 2014 to study the situation. Last summer, Fallin conceded a connection.

Gov. Mary Fallin: I think we all know now that there is a direct correlation between the increase of earthquakes that we've seen in Oklahoma with disposal wells...

Nonetheless, last year, the state cut the budget of the agencies investigating the quakes and regulating the oil and gas industry. Kim Hatfield of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association sits on the governor's council. He did agree to an interview and insists the science is inconclusive.
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Z

Zaphod

Member
ShaggsMagoo said:
That is 100% false. People have mentioned the New Madrid fault plenty of times in the thread and Oklahoma isn't far from it.
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Sure, a few rare ones have occurred in the past, but the frequency has jumped up dramatically in the last nine years.
 
T

totowhoa

Banned
Yeah that shit woke me up here in OK. Earthquakes here have just been getting larger and more frequent the last decade :( fucking oil industry
 
A

Angry Chair

Member
I felt it in southwest Iowa. I thought there was a mouse climbing my window blinds before I realized the whole house was shaking.
 
S

SeanC

Member
kirblar said:
On the cause, found this contradicting the fracking explanation. (It's still pointing to an oil industry issue, just a different one) http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-oklahoma-rise-in-quakes-linked-to-man-made-causes/


-
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It's not 100% a contradiction, though. Fracking utilizes disposal of wastewater which this is linked to (it has to do this process, no alternative). Fracking has massively increased and therefore disposal has increased and therefore more earthquakes. Compiled with other industries using it, or already were, it's skyrocked. What's worse is that even though the state government has asked companies to find alternatives or even shut down some wells, they've either not said anything or outright refusing.

Fallin sold out her state to the oil industry and this process in hopes of generating more revenue. No new revenue has occurred and the state ended up cutting, what else (its a red state afterall) education and social programs to compensate.
 
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