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sammy_gw

Earthquake

Did many of you feel them? There were two. One was 3.7, the second was 4.2, and the third was 3.0.

We live in Broken Arrow near Tulsa.

I really do not like earthquakes. The towns reporting them are: Spencer, Jones, and I don't know about the 3rd.

Sammy

Comments (30)

  • TulsaRose
    9 years ago

    Nothing here...nada.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Oklahoma Earthquakes

  • Lisa_H OK
    9 years ago

    The big one woke me up. They actually don't bother me. I have not been too worried we will have a really big one, so all these small ones just feel like a little bit of excitement. I probably should be more worried than I am :)

    Lisa

  • mksmth zone 7a Tulsa Oklahoma
    9 years ago

    im in bixby. I felt the one around 5:45.

  • Lisa_H OK
    9 years ago

    That is so odd! We had people in Bethany and Yukon that didn't feel it.

  • sammy zone 7 Tulsa
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I think it depends on what you are doing if you feel it.

    To me the first feeling is like driving, and having a strong wind hit the car or van. That is the feeling when a big truck passes.

    After the wind hitting sensation, I can tell that the floor is moving a little. If he were running the vacuum or doing many chores in or out of the house, I don't think I would notice.

    Sammy

  • wulfletons
    9 years ago

    I've never actually FELT one, but I have a few. This morning I though I heard a big thunder clap, but then learned when I got up that it had actually been an earthquake. To me, they have sounded like very loud thunder claps, or like there was a car accident just outside the house. I have never felt movement or heard anything rattle.

  • greenveggielover
    9 years ago

    We had a series of them here south of Ardmore, last September. It seemed to be connected to a salt water injection well that was just being put into service. As soon as they stopped injecting into the well, the earthquakes stopped. They were pretty scary while they lasted. A big crash, like an explosion, and a hard shaking. One morning I came back into the house to find things knocked down off the walls in every room. I even packed up all my good china to keep it safe. But it's been quiet ever since the well was shut down.

    Flis

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago

    Y'all have all the fun and get all the excitement up there. We live in dullsville down here, but I'm not complaining. Dull is good.

    I guess I slept through them all this morning. We're too far away to feel the central OK quakes unless they are really big (well, big for OK)....like in the upper 4s or lower 5s. Y'all sure have had an astounding number of them this year.

    Flis, You know, I never thought about how much closer those quakes were to your place than to ours. Sometimes it pays to be further south. : )

    It has been quiet here ever since because (a) everyone got upset and there was a community meeting, (b) there was a corresponding amount of media attention as you might have noticed; (c) the gentleman, Mr. Hull, who owns the property where the injection well was located (near the Hwy 77/Hickory Creek bridge across the road a bit from HIckory Hollow/Lazyman's Corner) voluntarily stopped allowing use of that injection well for the sake of the community because he is a class act, and (d) we all lived happily ever after. That's how things happen here. Goodness wins out. : ) Mr. Hull is the only person I've ever heard of who voluntarily shut down the usage of an injection well built on his property purely for the sake of the community. Undoubtedly it is costing him money, but he put the welfare of the people in that area and their homes first, and I hope everyone really appreciates that he did that.

    And, of course, it is likely that we'll eventually start having quakes here again because I am sure there must be other waste water injection wells either in use or in development.

    Dawn

  • Adella Bedella
    9 years ago

    We were living in Oklahoma during the big one (5.6) in 2011. I was sitting in a chair in the living room. It felt like a vibrating bed from one of the old motels. Dh was in the same room standing up facing me. He heard it more than felt it. He thought it was a military helicopter at first. We were in the same room and we both perceived it differently. My son who was camping in a tent at the neighbor's house did not feel it at all.

    Another one hit after that. Dh was in the house. He felt it. I was outside walking the dog in the yard. I heard it as nearby thunder, but didn't feel anything.

    We had some of the later ones hit where we saw the chandelier swinging, but didn't hear or feel anything. The cat and dog would sometimes react when we weren't aware of anything happening.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    I felt it. It shook the bed. You always feel them much more upstairs. I work upstairs and my husband works on ground level in a converted garage and often I can feel one dramatically, things make noises from the vibrations in the room while he doesn't feel it at all so maybe thats why sometimes some people don't feel it. There was 2 this time around 5:00 am or around that time.

    Channel 4-- KFOR news is supposed to air something on this subject later in the year. There are people looking into why we are having so many so they said they would be showing the results of that study.

  • chickencoupe
    9 years ago

    I look forward to the results of that study. Thanks for mentioning it, Tex

    In 2011, my son woke me up "Momma. Did you feel that? The whole house was shaking." I thot it was an act of God. A quake shake in Oklahoma?

  • Lisa_H OK
    9 years ago

    For OKC people...there is supposed to be a town hall meeting later this month in Edmond, I think, on the earthquakes.

    Here is a link that might be useful: OK Legislators host town hall meeting

  • wulfletons
    9 years ago

    I definitely felt (but interestingly didn't hear) the 4.1 this morning (the epicenter was in Spencer). The glasses on my bedside table shook and I could actually feet the wall behind my head shake. My husband has started calling them quakenadoes. It does seem like they are hitting further south than they were this time last year.

  • sammy zone 7 Tulsa
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I did not feel them today, but my son did. His bedroom is on the second floor, and he said the windows were even shaking.

    Sammy

  • Lisa_H OK
    9 years ago

    This one woke me up again this morning. It did not feel as big as Monday's, but still enough to wake me up.

    I keep feeling tiny, tiny tremors. I can't tell if they are real or my imagination :)

  • p_mac
    9 years ago

    Thank you, Lisa! I thought I was imagining the after-shocks but obviously, neither of us were!

    I thought of you, Krista, when I heard the location.

    Shouldn't all these quakes discourage gopher activity? I think we should get SOMETHING good outta of all this shake, rattle and roll!

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago

    Whenever you think you are feeling tremors that might be small aftershocks, you can go to the USGS page of recent earthquake activity and either check to see if they are occurring or you can report that you are feeling them. I'll link that page below.

    On their Earthquake Hazards page, you can click on "Did you feel it?" to report feeling a quake. I always report them when I feel them, although I've only felt the two largest ones y'all had in 2011 down here. There is a running list of recent quakes. Oklahoma is on that list a lot the last few years.

    Paula, Now that is just some wishful thinking right there!

    Here is a link that might be useful: USGS Earthquake Hazards Page

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    That does it. Enough is enough. We had another long vibration that lasted a long time last night along with the others two nights in a row and all the other recent ones so we took out Earthquake insurance today. The woman at the Insurance company lives close to a fault line & said she's had E. I. for 20 years. Her daughter signed up this week too finally. It is $70/per year with $4000. deductible.

    The agent also said its good to sign up now, if it becomes more frequent and there is a lot of damage you won't be able to get a new policy for this so its good to get on the ground floor before there is a policy change.

  • Lisa_H OK
    9 years ago

    I felt a really long "shimmy" at my house (north OKC) late last night. No one else on my FB feed felt it, even those that lived nearby. I was getting so paranoid, I finally grabbed a glass measuring cup and put it where I could watch it. I saw a little bit of movement, but not much. BUT I FELT IT! Just a wee shimmy. but it went on and on, probably a hour or so off and on.

    I did report it. I wished I had written down the time. I noticed this morning they reported a 2 something magnitude around 10 p.m.

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    Lisa, that's exactly what I felt too, I kept thinking it would end but it was just this long "shimmy", as good a word as any. The actual word I should have used instead of "policy changes" if this keeps up (I am being corrected) was moratorium. If you take out a policy now, it will be grandfathered in but she said they'd likely put a moratorium on offering insurance for earthquakes if it becomes a regular risk in a prone area.

  • Lisa_H OK
    9 years ago

    That is crazy. They will be putting in exceptions for tornados soon. They won't cover anything but sunshine :)

  • TexasRanger10
    9 years ago

    The way I understood it was if an area is labeled high risk earthquake prone, it will be like living on a flood plain where it floods whenever there is a heavy rain or those landslides in California where people keep rebuilding in high risk areas.

  • Lisa_H OK
    9 years ago

    I can understand that. Earthquakes would have a much wider range though, I would think.

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    9 years ago

    TexasRanger, I'm glad to hear you took out the earthquake insurance. Every time I read about another quake, shake, vibration or shimmy up there, the thought that runs through my head is "if I lived in central Oklahoma, I'd buy earthquake insurance".

    Lisa, I think shimmy is a good word to describe it. I think some people are just more attuned to the movement of the earth and notice those little shimmies more than others do. When we felt the second quake down here in, I think, 2011, no one in the house felt it except for me. Tim just looked at me like I was imagining things. I had gone to bed early that night, we were under a tornado watch, and it was storming when the little earthquake awakened me. Being sleepy and confused, feeling shaking and seeing lightning and hearing thunder and heavy rain and strong wind, an earthquake was not what immediately came to mind. I ran downstairs and asked Tim if a tornado had just passed by close to us. When he said "no", then I told him "OK, I guess if was an earthquake", and when I checked the USGS website, I learned that one had occurred in central OK at the same time I woke up.

    I didn't feel the ones that happened in Love County last year, but with a couple of them I heard them, though I didn't realize that the sound I heard was linked to the quakes until later on. Those quakes were being felt strongly about 15-20 miles north of our house, but they were fairly small in magnitude.

    I've noticed the central OK earthquake swarm is getting a lot of attention from scientists and from the media.

    Dawn

  • BarrySWMO
    9 years ago

    25 posts and no one, so far, has mentioned fracking which, from what I've read, is happening in a grand scale in Oklahoma. Ohio was pretty stable, too, until they started fracking there. That's all right, fracking is good for the economy, even if destroys homes, causes sink holes, and makes the aquifers and water toxic. Some fracking companies are trying to get legislators to pass laws that make it illegal to test the fracking fluids to determine the toxic chemicals used. Fracking! Can anyone in Oklahoma say fracking? ;o)

  • sammy zone 7 Tulsa
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Barry, my husband has been talking about fracking, but I guess it has not come up here. I am not sure where it is being done, but we do need some control over it.

    Yesterday in the evening or late afternoon we felt another slight rumble. (I like the word shimmer. It was only about 2 seconds, but it was real)

    Sammy

  • chickencoupe
    9 years ago

    Was that a quake about 3:10pm? Felt like something hit the house. I pray this doesn't happen again. Our house will fall over!

  • chickencoupe
    9 years ago

    dupe

    This post was edited by ChickenCoupe on Sat, Jun 21, 14 at 16:53

  • Lisa_H OK
    9 years ago

    Barry...you didn't read the comments too closely. It was mentioned several times. Fracking has been going on for 60 years. The earthquakes just ramped up in the last 3 or so years. There may be a connection to some of the injection wells (see Dawn and Fils' comments). The Oklahoma Corporation Commission is looking into it, and you will notice that I posted a link to a "town hall" meeting that two legislators are putting on regarding the earthquakes.

    Oklahoma has been having earthquakes for at least a thousand years. (see link below) The Meers earthquake 1300 years ago is suspected to be a 7.0 earthquake. The state is full of understudied fault lines. I believe those are now being studied :)

    Lisa

    Here is a link that might be useful: Leonard Geophysical Observatory

  • chickencoupe
    9 years ago

    I'm inclined to think something other than mother nature made the change in 2010.

    Oklahoma Interactive Map of Quakes

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