Source: Strong Oklahoma Earthquake Felt From Nebraska to Texas - NBC News The United States Geological Survey said a 5.6 magnitude earthquake happened at 7:02 a.m. CT (8:02 a.m. ET) Saturday in north-central Oklahoma, on the fringe of an area where regulators had stepped in to limit wastewater disposal. We were staying in Stillwater OK, about 20 miles away. Sleeping, it woke the dogs and I thought, "Why are they moving such heavy carts down the hallway." Back to sleep. But apparently it caused a hot water pipe leak so the shower ran cold water a long time later that day. The night before, we'd had supper with Frank and Sandra's place, outside of Stillwater. They have a new, working oil well. As Sandra was putting the chickens and livestock away, she mentioned the royalties are nice but the big money is in water and pipeline right-of-way. If the BMW i3-REx was a space ship in Mississippi, it was totally foreign in the middle of the Oklahoma oil patch. Curious culture, so glad I'm in modern Alabama. Bob Wilson
I assume the irony is 'still' in 'Stillwater'. It is nicely a bit deeper, involving both 'unmoving' and 'potable water persists'. When 'lube-injected' earthquakes in relatively calm seismic regions trigger 2s and 3s, it made sense to me. There is sure to be some disagreement among deeper rocks about whom ought to be exactly where. In the absence of lube, such disputes are not settled. But intensities of 5 to 6 indicate 1000s of times larger 'disagreements' persist down yonder. I would not have expected that. Leftover from New Madrid after 200 years??
A bit less injecting (in the near term) Oklahoma earthquake: State orders shutdown of 37 wells - Sep. 3, 2016 Story says in 2011 there was a similarly large earthquake. I did not know that. Again, the magnitude scale is much above linear in terms of energy release. If my math is right M 5.6 releases about 22000 times the energy of 2.7 Oklahoma may not have 'seismic' building codes. do not know. They surely have tornado building codes directed at keeping structures from losing their tops. A very different engineering goal.
The New Madrid will break again... and when it does = there will be destruction unseen in this country since San Francisco was lost. Many bridges and overpasses will collapse... brick houses will fall, tall towers will fall, and folks won't be able to get what they need to survive the aftershocks. This trembler is bigger than the last one in this neighborhood... and was predicted by the model of increasing intensity. They may have a larger one within a week. I hope not... they are not ready for it.
