Tag Archives: Earthquake

Earthquakes Cause Minor Damage, Knock Out Power in Oklahoma

Early-morning earthquakes caused some damage in one Oklahoma community on Tuesday.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a magnitude 4.3 earthquake occurred at 5:39 a.m. local time about five miles outside of Edmond, Oklahoma, one of the state’s most populous cities. A magnitude 3.4 aftershock followed nearby exactly 10 minutes later.

Edmond is located about 15 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.

The earthquakes caused about 4,400 customers in Edmond to lose power, officials wrote on the city’s Twitter page. However, crews restored service to every customer within about 90 minutes.

One Edmond resident shared a picture on Twitter showing a broken mirror inside a bathroom, though there weren’t published reports indicating the quake caused severe damage or injuries.

Another magnitude 2.9 earthquake shook the ground 17 miles outside of Fairview, Oklahoma, at 6:48 a.m., according to the USGS. Fairview is roughly 100 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.

The three earthquakes were the latest to hit the state of Oklahoma, which has seen a dramatic rise in seismic activity since 2009, according to the USGS. Wastewater from the oil and gas companies who operate in the state have been linked to the uptick, and officials at the regulatory Oklahoma Corporation Commission have implemented steps to reduce wastewater production.

However, the earthquakes continue.

USGS data indicates Oklahoma has experienced about 123 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater in the past 30 days. That includes dozens of quakes of at least magnitude 3.0. Before 2009, the USGS says the state traditionally only saw one to three magnitude 3.0 quakes a year.

Tuesday’s earthquakes came at a time when Oklahoma was still reeling from a powerful storm that brought ice, snow and flooding to the state, which the state Department of Health said led to at least 50 people suffering injuries. The entire state remains under a state of emergency, and the National Weather Service issued flood and flash flood warnings across eastern Oklahoma.

Close to 200,000 customers across Oklahoma lacked power on Monday afternoon, Governor Mary Fallin’s office said in a news release announcing the state of emergency. However, utility companies said their crews were busy restoring power to those who had been left in the dark.

The Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported about 17,000 customers were without power on Tuesday morning. Another utility company, OG&E, reported it had restored service to about 60,000 of its customers, though about 19,000 were experiencing outages. The Oklahoma Electric Cooperative reported approximately 54,000 people near Oklahoma City lacked power.

Magnitude 7.2 Earthquake Strikes in Tajikistan, Aftershocks Follow

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake occurred in a remote area of Tajikistan on Monday.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported the quake occurred about 68 miles west of Murghob at about 12:50 p.m. local time. Several aftershocks occurred nearby, USGS data show.

NBC News reported buildings in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India shook as a result of the quake.

There were not any immediate reports of deaths, injuries or damage.

The earthquake occurred 18 miles underground near Sarez Lake in the Pamir Mountain range.

According to the USGS, earthquakes in that part of Tajikistan seldom lead to shaking-related deaths because the region is so remote. But they have sometimes triggered fatal mudslides.

The USGS website shows that eight other quakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater occurred in or near Tajikistan on Monday.

There were magnitude 4.8 and 4.6 aftershocks near Sarez Lake within three hours of the initial earthquake, according to USGS data.

There was also a cluster of four earthquakes further northeast closer to the city of Karakul. They ranged in magnitude from 4.8 to 5.4, the data show.

Further northeast, on the other side of Karakul, the data show there were magnitude 4.5 and 4.6 quakes near Tajikistan’s border with China.

Scientists Track Fukushima Radiation off Pacific Coast

Scientists who are studying the impacts of a nuclear power plant accident in Japan have discovered radiation is spreading to more sites off the Pacific Coast of the United States.

But the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute reported Thursday that even a sample with the highest-documented radiation level to date is still far below a threshold that should cause alarm.

The institute has been tracking the spread of radiation from the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima power plant, in which an earthquake set off a tsunami that struck the plant and caused three meltdowns. That event released some radioactive material into the Pacific Ocean.

Ken Bruessler, the director of the institute’s Center for Marine and Environmental Radioactivity, is part of a research team that’s monitoring the ocean for traces of that radioactive material. Over the past four years, they’ve observed small amounts of material, cesium-134, off the coast of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California.

The team recently found its most contaminated sample to date — 11 becquerals per cubic meter of ocean water, according to a news release. A becqueral is a unit used to measure radioactivity, and this sample was 50 percent higher than any other that’s ever been found off the West Coast.

Even at its highest figure yet, scientists say the sample is still more than 500 times lower than government standards for safe drinking water. It’s also OK for recreational activities like swimming, and Bruessler said in the news release that it’s also below safety limits for sea life.

Contamination levels are higher near Fukushima.

While Bruessler said in the news release that contamination levels near Japan “are thousands of times lower” than they were following the 2011 accident, recent samples collected there contain 10 to 100 times more radioactive material than those collected off the Pacific Coast. He said that indicates that the plant is still releasing radioactive material, though how much remains unclear.

The scientists also note that virtually any sample of Pacific Ocean water will have some level of radioactive material, as atomic weapons testing was performed there in parts of three decades.

Scientists say they know the contamination they’re measuring is from Fukushima and not left over from atomic bomb detonations because the specific type of radioactive material is different.

Four earthquakes strike Oklahoma, including another 4.7

Four more earthquakes struck Oklahoma on Monday, including one of magnitude 4.7.

That’s according to the United States Geological Survey’s earthquake data.

The magnitude 4.7 earthquake came at 3:49 a.m. Central Time, the USGS said. It was about five kilometers below the earth’s surface and was centered near Medford, close to the Kansas border.

The Associated Press said there were no immediate accounts of damage, but KWTV News 9 reported the quake was felt across Oklahoma and it shook some of the state’s residents awake.

The Tulsa World reported this morning’s earthquake tied for the largest one in the state since 2011. It was matched only by a magnitude 4.7 earthquake located near Cherokee on Nov. 19.

A trio of smaller earthquakes followed.

A magnitude 3.0 quake occurred at 5:50 a.m. near Edmond, according to the USGS. An hour later, there were magnitude 3.1 and 2.7 earthquakes within 40 minutes of each other near Perry.

More than 5,000 earthquakes have already been recorded in Oklahoma this year, according to NPR. The oil and gas industries in Oklahoma produce a lot of wastewater, which the USGS has linked to the rise in earthquakes. State officials have introduced measures to limit wastewater.

Oklahoma is a key component of the energy scene in the United States.

It houses what an NPR report called North America’s largest commercial crude oil storage center, holding approximately 54 million barrels of oil in tanks the size of airplane hangars.

The facility is located in Cushing. While an official told NPR that the Oklahoma quakes have not caused any issues yet, the tanks weren’t constructed with any kind of major earthquake in mind.

That’s because the swarm in earthquakes is a recent phenomenon.

The number of earthquakes began to trend upward in 2009, and a USGS report found a 50 percent increase in the state’s earthquake rate from October 2013 to its May 2014 publication.

The report also said that raised the odds that a magnitude 5.5 quake would hit Oklahoma. A magnitude 5.6 quake hit Prague in November 2011, which is the state’s biggest quake on record.

A USGS research geophysicist told NPR he’s spoken to the Department of Homeland Security about the Cushing oil tanks. NPR also reported that officials fear that any earthquake damage to the Cushing facility could have significant implications in the United States energy market.

Peru and Brazil rocked by two 7.6 earthquakes

On Tuesday, in a remote, sparsely populated jungle region near the borders of Peru, Brazil and Bolivia, a deep, powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake shook intensely followed by another 7.6 magnitude quake five minutes later and just miles away.

The United States Geological Survey says that the latter earthquake was almost certainly triggered by the earlier event. Seismologists sometimes refer to a pair of similarly sized earthquakes that occur at nearly the same time and location as an earthquake “doublet.”

According to AccuWeather reports, the quake occurred 107 miles west-northwest of Iberia, Peru, and 423 miles east-northeast of the capital of Lima. The second quake was centered 130 miles south of Tarauaca, Brazil.

Because of the depth of these quakes at 373.2 miles and 380.1 miles, respectively, no tsunami watches or warnings were issued.

The area of these quakes are inhabited by fewer than 1,000 people. No reports of injuries are damage have been reported at this time.

Scientists worry that 5.5-magnitude quake could strike Oklahoma

Four earthquakes hit Oklahoma on Monday, including one of magnitude 4.4, and geologists believe that an even bigger one could be coming.

The United States Geological Survey notes the chance for a magnitude 5.5 quake has risen significantly, given the rise in the state’s seismic activity.

KFOR notes that more than 5,000 earthquakes have been recorded in Oklahoma this year, and a May 2014 report from the USGS noted a nearly 50 percent increase in the state’s earthquakes since October 2013.

The USGS report included a statistical analysis of Oklahoma’s earthquake rates and found the increase did not appear to be a part of the typical fluctuations found in nature. The analysis found that one of the likely contributing factors to the increase in wastewater being injected into geologic formations deep underground. Such induction-induced seismicity, as the USGS refers to it, has also been documented in Arkansas, Ohio and Texas.

Oklahoma has a magnitude 5.6 earthquake on record. It occurred near Prague, which is about 70 miles east of Oklahoma City, in 2011 and damaged homes and buildings, according to media reports. The USGS report noted that before that the Prague quake, the previous highest earthquake in the state’s history was a magnitude 5.5 quake in 1952.

In August, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission implemented a plan to reduce wastewater disposal in some parts of the state where seismic activity had risen sharply in an effort to mitigate the quake impacts.

Still, there have been 153 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater in Oklahoma in the past 30 days alone, according to the USGS. 

The magnitude 4.4 quake that hit Monday was located near Cherokee, some 140 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. NewsOK reported it was located only a few miles from a 4.7 earthquake that hit last Thursday and was the state’s highest recorded seismic activity since 2011.

Preliminary 6.1-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Greek Island; At Least 1 Dead

A strong earthquake with at least a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 struck the western Greek island of Lefkada on Tuesday, and an hour later, a 5.2-magnitude aftershock struck the area.

Different organizations are reporting different magnitude readings at this time. The Athens Geodynamic Institute told the Associated Press that the preliminary magnitude was 6.1 and that the quake struck at 9:10 a.m. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the preliminary magnitude was 6.5. Different agencies will usually have different readings hours and days after the quake, according to the Associated Press. Despite the lack of an official magnitude, residents in neighboring islands and even in Athens – 186 miles east of the island – felt the tremors.

Local officials stated that there has been at least one death. An elderly woman was killed after her house collapsed under a falling rock. Local residents told Reuters that another elderly woman was killed in a stable in a mountain village, but Greek police have not confirmed the second death. However, other news sources including the Washington Post have confirmed the second death.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Greek officials are having a hard time assessing the damage because of landslides that are blocking roads. The Vassiliki harbor is also partially submerged due to the quake.

Other damages include several badly damaged houses and government buildings. Schools closed down in order for authorities to assess the safety of the buildings.

Earthquakes are common in Greece according to multiple news agencies. The Ionian Sea located to the west of Greece, is one of most seismically active areas of the world.

Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake Offshore of Japan

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Saturday off the coast of southwest Japan, triggering a small tsunami, followed by another 6.5 earthquake shortly after.  There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The USGS says the first quake struck at 5:51 a.m. local time, or 12:51 p.m. PDT, approximately 99 miles southwest of Makurazaki, Japan. The second one occurred 32 seconds later, 9 miles away.

There was no immediate tsunami danger to the U.S. West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska, the National Tsunami Warning Center said.

In 2011, a massive earthquake caused a tsunami that left more than 18,000 people dead or missing in north-eastern Japan.

Some 230,000 people have yet to return to their home towns since the disaster reported the BBC.

Oklahoma: World’s #1 Earthquake Area

A state agency released a report on Tuesday claiming that Oklahoma is now the number one earthquake area of the world.

According to the Enid News and Eagle, Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) spokesman, Matt Skinner, stated that there has been 15 earthquakes in the Medford area since Saturday. He added that the world is currently going through a seismic phase.

“In North America, Oklahoma is very unique and unique in the world, in the sense that it’s concentrated so much in just one area,” said Jim Palmer, OCC director of public information and manager of consumer education.

And because state officials see this as a very real problem, the commission’s Oil and Gas Conservation Division announced a plan to help reduce the risk of induced earthquakes in the area.

The oil and gas industry now gives seismic activity data to the Oklahoma Geological Survey who uses the information and turns into data that the OCC can use. This helps the OCC find disposal wells that could be causing seismic activity due to water being injected into the basement rock. And the reason the water was disposed of in the first place was because it was saltwater that contained natural constituents like arsenic and lead that could infect surface water.

“You really don’t want it out on the surface. You want to put it back down the hole. So, that’s done in the name of protecting groundwater, it’s protecting underground drinking water supplies and it’s worked quite well for a long, long time,” Skinner said. “However, now, we have a new thing to worry about, which is induced seismicity.”

And while the Oklahoma Corporation Commission is trying their best to reduce the amount of earthquakes in the area, Skinner admits they still don’t have all the details.

“All we have is data,” he said. “In terms of this phenomenon, very little is really known.”