Oklahoma Earthquake

Usually, the events of earth moving in a fall weekend in Oklahoma are in the college football stadiums in Norman and Stillwater.
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Sometimes Topic: Earthquakes
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But on this Saturday and Sunday, the earth moved - at least 23 times - and football was not involved.
Earthquakes, powerful standards Midwestern cities hit an hour drive northeast of Oklahoma City. They began early Saturday morning and continued intermittently through the weekend.
On Saturday night, the area experienced the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the state. There were no serious injuries were reported, but minor damage to roads and buildings was reported, according to the Sheriff's Department in Lincoln County, the epicenter of many earthquakes.
The region's geological activity has increased in recent years, earthquakes have occurred with greater frequency and intensity. The great earthquake on the night of Saturday, which occurred at 10:53, had a preliminary magnitude of 5.6, according to the Center of the National Earthquake Information, a division of the United States Geological Survey.
The USGS said the quake Saturday night was shallow, about three miles deep, and that the epicenter was four miles east of Sparks, which is about 44 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.
That quake followed by smaller ones earlier in the day, including one at 2:12 am with a preliminary magnitude of 4.7. Its epicenter was in Prague, about 50 miles east of Oklahoma City.
Since mid-2009, the State has had earthquakes 10 times more than normal, said Austin Holland, research seismologist with the Geological Survey of Oklahoma. In 2010, the earth under the feet of Oklahoma 'moved more than 1,000 times, but only about 100 were strong enough to be felt.
"They have no idea," said Holland, of the increase. "It could be a natural cycle, just do not know."
Unlike prone to earthquakes in California and Japan, Oklahoma does not rest on the fragmented areas where two tectonic plates rub against each other. However, the state geophysical activity has only been recognized in earnest for about 50 years, Mr. Holland said, making it difficult to draw conclusions or to recent activity in context.
But the state has faults that are buried, as Wizetta failure, also known as the Seminole uprising in eastern Oklahoma City, where the pressure to build.
"You still get earthquakes in the plate. That does not mean that there is a plate boundary, but there is a failure," said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the Centre National Earthquake Information.
The pressure is released as tremor, which struck as residents over the weekend in Prague, Oklahoma, where the damage visible in the morning on Sunday includes the chimneys had collapsed at home. In a house in North Road, China's cabinet was emptied of its contents, which broke, Mr. Holland said. Parts of Highway 62 between Prague and Meeker belt, he said.
In Lincoln County, ran up the cracks in the brick court in Chandler after a minor earthquake early Saturday, said Justin Reese, who runs the Diner Boomarang there.
Since the earthquake on Saturday night, there have been 11 aftershocks measuring over 2.5 on the Richter scale, Mr. Blakeman said.
Mr. Holland said the intensity of earthquakes in Oklahoma "could go either way."
But this being of Oklahoma football fans in Norman and Stillwater Not to be outdone by an earthquake on Saturday.
In Norman, University of Oklahoma Sooners defeated the Aggies of Texas A & M, 41 to 25, and in Stillwater, Oklahoma State Cowboys defeated the Kansas State Wildcats, 52 to 45.