Moni,

I saw that on a news website a few minutes ago and was thinking the same thing. I wish whoever is making Mother Nature mad would just stop it and stop it now!

Did of you Okies up in Central OK feel this quake? I didn't feel it down here.

Dawn

my daughter lives around 17 miles mostly north and a bit east, she felt it. My biking buddy lives 17 miles just about straight east... and he felt it too.

friend of mine living north west of Lake Hefner felt it also.

Moni

We're in rural NE Norman (north of Thunderbird) and we felt it!!

DH was watching the game and I was in the kitchen making candy. All the Christmas knik-knacks did a dance.

Paula

Here in Edmond, my husband and I nearly had heart attacks! A few things on the walls were shifted, animals were frightened and snow shifted.

Very scary experience overall!

My son felt it in Broken Arrow, and called us. We were busy and had not noticed it.
Sammy

I think Mother Nature has been going through Menopause the past few years.

I think she was shivering!!

I heard it and then felt it. It felt almost as big as the really big one (5.6?) one that we had a year or two ago. I didn't hear the china rattle this time though. So, 4.5 is probably about right.

I can recognize an earthquake roar now. I knew immediately what was coming!

There's something totally wrong about it, too. Earthquakes don't happen here. A woman at the store ...after the big one moved to Oklahoma from California with exclusive desire of putting earthquakes behind her. She was so angry. LOL

That big one .. we felt, but not this one.

Is it because of oil exploration?

I think it is due to earthworms farting. Personal opinion only...

Yup!

And cow flatulence ... causing global warming.

And we once joked that dinosaur farts lead to their own demise.

LOL

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

People in cities don't get their water from wells, and there is a lot of money to be made. I don't suppose they will stop.