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Photos by Sue Ogrocki / AP
Maintenance workers inspect the damage to one of the spires on Benedictine Hall at St. Gregory's University in Shawnee, Okla. on Nov. 6, 2011. Two earthquakes in the area in less than 24 hours caused one of the towers to topple, and damaged the remaining three.
SPARKS, Okla. — Oklahoma residents more accustomed to tornadoes than earthquakes have been shaken by weekend temblors that cracked buildings, buckled a highway and rattled nerves. One quake late Saturday was the state's strongest ever and jolted a college football stadium 50 miles away.
The magnitude 5.6 earthquake was Oklahoma's strongest on record, said Jessica Turner, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Centered near Sparks, 44 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, it could be felt throughout the state and in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, northern Texas and some parts of Illinois and Wisconsin. It followed a magnitude 4.7 quake early Saturday that was felt from Texas to Missouri. Read more ...
Chad Devereaux clears up bricks on Sunday that fell from three sides of his in-laws' home in Sparks, Okla. The weekend earthquakes were among the strongest yet in a state that has seen a dramatic, unexplained increase in seismic activity.
A late-night earthquake rattled homes — and nerves — across Okla. last night. NBC's Lilia Luciano reports.
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From the photos, it appears OK has not banned unreinforced masonry or required retrofit. Like many third world countries where substandard construction contributed to thousands of needless death, OK's unreinforced masonry will also put many residents in harms way.
"A state that has seen a dramatic, unexplained increase in
seismic activity." Unexplained?
I guess that the thousands of Atomic Bombs that were detonated
underground did nothing to fracture the earth.
They were nothing but soft balls rolling down a hill.
We will soon begin to reap the whirl wind as the broken and
fractured interior of the planet starts to slip and slide.
We have left our children a terrible legacy. A broken and polluted planet.
hahahahaha
I do hope you are being sarcastic, Obamanatic, spoofing ignoramuses who were fooling with their smart phones during their high school science lesson on basic earth plate tectonics.....otherwise, if your thinking is real and represents the average product of American education, we are in deep doo-doo as a country.
Yet another piece of evidence that in our democracy any idiot has the right to make absurd allegations that have no basis whatsoever in fact. There were fewer than 200 underground tests in the United States, none of which were in Oklahoma or any contiguous state.
More likely might be the extraction of oil and pumping of water from the underground aquifers for irrigation - or perhaps it is the precursor to December 21 2012 when the cataclysm is predicted by the Mayan calendar?
No, all the Mayans said was it would be time to buy a new calendar.
Not making a statement on your comment other than geography. New Mexico, where nuclear bomb tests were carried out, is contiguous to Oklahoma. Just drive out through the Oklahoma panhandle and you will drive right into it. "No basis whatsoever in fact" indeed.
Being from CA. I'm used to earthquakes. CA. holds up pretty well during earthquakes, strong buildings made with fir, not as much brick. I guess no state gets a free ticket anymore. Could happen anywhere.
That region of Oklahoma is on a known fault area, as is much of Texas. The existence of the Arbuckle and Ouachita Mountains in Oklahoma is proof of seismic activity. They are not as active as areas like California, but sooner or later, the earth has to reposition itself. There have been minor earthquakes in the area for quite a while, but this one was bigger.
In the Dallas area there have been a few adjustments, such as in Irving, near DFW airport. For at least 20 years hwy 183 has been moving causing the road to be very wavy. That fault area runs all the way down to San Marcos near San Antonio. In Wonder Cave you can see "an earth quake from the inside". So it is not something new, just very rare for a good sized earthquake in the area. Funny thing about the building materials. Back in the summer, many people were yelling that "tornado prone" areas, such as Oklahoma need to build with brick and stone. But these are the very materials that fail during earthquakes. Since Oklahoma has both, it really doesn't matter what they build with. Nothing is Mother Nature proof.
http://www.paloduro.ca/i/maps/pd-fig1.gif
http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/struc_geo/ouachita/ouachita.htm
You play the odds. The odds of an earthquake that would cause major structural damage is very small. The few houses that were damaged in this 5.6 quake may have been the only houses damaged by a quake since homes have been built in the former land of Native Americans. Where as hundreds, if not thousands of homes have been damaged by tornadoes. To suggest not building a stronger more tornado and wind resistant home because of earthquakes is irresponsible.
I know St.Greg's....that building is iconic. So glad no one was hurt. I hope Mabbee-Gerrer faired well...one of the most beautiful art collections for a small museum.
Quakes happen here all the time, This was just a big one for Okla. Wait till the New Madrid fault in Mo. lets go again, it will be a lot of bad for a lot of people.
My thoughts exactly, Rick. We live right on the Mississippi River....New Madrid has been relatively quite, but with all the seismic activity going on...makes me wonder..when? We have inquired about earthquake insurance, even though we are a wee bit north of the "affected boundry"......Up until this happened, I knew nothing about the Meers fault and I lived in Shawnee Oklahoma for a brief spell. Makes me wonder what else is going on under our feet......