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The Kitchen Table

Oklahoma Earthquakes

10 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
10 years ago
It looks like there has been dozens of small quakes in your state over the last few days!
OklaMoni
10 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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I was in Hennessy and felt the one on the 30th. 3 distinct "shakes" and my water glass was confirming my wonder. I lived in California for most of my life so quakes are nothing new to me, I felt the Northridge quake and the Whittier Narrows quake, both were tremendously strong. When the Northridge quake hit, it slammed our bedroom door open and shut 3 times and 20 gallons of water in my 100 gallon aquarium sloshed out onto the carpet. That quake crushed cars like pancakes inside a parking structure close to the epicenter. We are having quite a few small quakes here in OK, I think we have reached the same total of all last year here in early April.
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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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Zipper_TX
10 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
10 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
10 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
10 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
10 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
10 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
10 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
10 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
10 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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