Earthquake Strikes Central Oklahoma, Preliminary Magnitude 4.2

STROUD, OK — Several earthquakes have struck central Oklahoma, including one with a preliminary magnitude of 4.2, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

There were no reports of injury or damage as a result of any of the Friday morning temblors, state and local emergency management officials said.

The quake hit shortly before 9 a.m. near Stroud, about 55 miles northeast of Oklahoma City and was felt in western Arkansas and Wichita, Kansas, the USGS said. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

It was followed within about 75 minutes by five more earthquakes of preliminary magnitudes ranging from 2.7 to 3.8.

Did you feel the M4.2 #EQ near Stroud, Oklahoma? Let us know here: https://t.co/rJoMzoT3CH More info on quake: https://t.co/lg76IdeANT pic.twitter.com/JM1aElPsBU
— USGS (@USGS) July 14, 2017

Scientists have linked some oil and gas production in Oklahoma to an uptick in earthquakes, but the frequency of such earthquakes in Oklahoma had dropped recently as the state imposed new limits on the injection of wastewater into underground disposal wells.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission's induced seismicity department is working with the Oklahoma Geological Survey to investigate the quakes, according to commission spokesman Matt Skinner. But the agency has not issued a directive to shut down any disposal wells in the area, which is part of what is known as the Arbuckle formation.

"Everything is still in the initial stages right now," Skinner said, "but that (shuttering some wells) is a distinct possibility."

Skinner said there are eight disposal wells within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the preliminary location of the temblors and that the Oklahoma Geological Survey will determine the precise epicenters of the quakes.

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