Oklahoma sees record year for number of earthquakes

March 1, 2012 – OKLAHOMA – Just Wednesday afternoon, a 3.0 magnitude earthquake shook the central Oklahoma town of Wellston. Experts tell us the state experienced more than 1,000 quakes last year, with tremors felt by more than 60,000 people across Oklahoma and surrounding states. Seismologists saw a big jump in the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma last year. More than 1,000 quakes were recorded in 2011 — ten times the average number of 100 a year. Last year also produced the strongest quake in the state’s history — a 5.6 magnitude tremor in Lincoln County — in November. Oklahoma Geological Survey Seismologist, Austin Holland says it’s uncommon to see the number of earthquakes jump so drastically. “It’s a little unusual, to see this large uptick, some of that is due to the fact we have more seismic instruments in the state, so the more you listen, the more you’re gonna hear,” Holland said. November 5th, 2011 — an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.7 shook Lincoln County. Just a few hours later, a record 5.6 magnitude quake rocked the county. Several other quakes in that area followed a few days later. “That’s quite normal after a large earthquake like this, you’re gonna have many felt earthquakes afterwards and the number of felt earthquakes falls away with time. And the number of earthquakes in general dissipates with time,” Holland said. Thousands of people from as far north as Wisconsin, to as far south as the Dallas-Fort Worth area felt tremors from that earthquake. Holland says it has something to do with the rocks in the region. “Here in the central U.S., the rocks are colder and older than rocks in western United States, so a same size earthquake can be felt over a broader region in central United States than it is in the western United States.” Holland says there are a few fault-lines running through Texoma and one of them could cause a significant earthquake. “The largest fault that we know of that is capable of producing earthquakes is the Meers fault in southwestern Oklahoma,” Holland says. “So we know there are faults in the area and it’s possible to have large earthquakes in that portion of Oklahoma. The whole area is actually susceptible to earthquakes. There are a few well known fault lines, one is now the Wilzetta fault line, which is just north of Texoma, northeast of the Ada area, and that has been sparking several earthquakes in the past few years.” –KXII