10.13.10

Oklahoma Earthquake…What A Way To Start A Day!

Posted in General News at 10:55 am by Rebekah

At 9:06 am, I was upstairs in my 2-story apartment, about to leave for class, when I heard a giant rumble and felt the whole building shake.

Not having lived in earthquake country for a few years, I was confused for a minute at what that was. My cat just ran into the hall, crouched down low and stared at the door, as if he was expecting some elephant to walk in the door. My neighbors started yelling and I stepped outside to see what was going on. “Earthquake!” someone smiled. “I’m just talking to my wife and she says they felt it in Moore!” one man called out.

I saw that on facebook and twitter, everyone around Norman was talking about the earthquake. People have now reported feeling it as far away as Wichita, Kansas and Dallas, Texas.

The USGS initially reported the earthquake as a 4.5, but since then they’ve updated the information to a 4.3 magnitude quake, centered 6 miles ESE of Norman, and 3.1 miles deep.

The last earthquake I remember feeling was a strong 6.8 quake that lasted a minute, when I lived back in Ellensburg, Washington. That one was centered near Olympia, on the west side, but we felt it on the east side and even the high school was damaged and had to be rebuilt. The quake lasted for a minute, unlike the one this morning, which only lasted for probably 15 or so seconds.

The campus is abuzz with talk of the earthquake…everyone has their story of where they were and what they felt, or a story of how they didn’t feel it because they were sleeping or driving.

What a crazy way to start the day!

USGS link to the information on the quake…it may be updated if more information becomes available:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2010ciay.php

UPDATE @ 11:30am CDT: USGS now says depth was 4.9 miles, and the epicenter was 8 miles east of Norman. Two people reported as injured.

UPDATE @ 11:42am CDT: Oklahoma Geological Survey saying quake was 5.1 magnitude (official USGS report still says 4.3)

UPDATE @ 12:07pm CDT: USGS maintaining 4.3 magnitude, though eventually I expect they would come into agreement with the Oklahoma Geological Survey (or the other way around). If it is a 5.1, that is the 2nd strongest earthquake in Oklahoma history (the strongest being a 5.5 on the Richter scale). The USGS has updated the epicenter to 10 miles east of Norman, +/- 4.0 miles…the depth they maintain at 4.9 miles, +/- 5.6 miles.

UPDATE 10/14 @ 2:20pm CDT: OGS revised their magnitude to 4.7, closer to the USGS 4.3.

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