Earthquakes are shaking Oklahoma and surrounding states and for the first time in my 40 something year- old-life, I experienced one.
Shortly before 11 p.m. and shortly after the Kansas State Wildcats fell short of defeating the Oklahoma State University Cowboys, the earth moved.
I had just turned off the television and was resting on the couch when I heard things mildly shaking.
Earlier in the day around 2:12 a.m. a 4.7 quake was recorded in Praque, Oklahoma that I did not feel but others in my city and neighborhood did.
But the post OSU victory quake, I felt.
Things barely moved and seemed to stop. I thought maybe that was an aftershock.
Before I could finish the thought, the house and everything in it including me was shaking.
It lasted seconds and later the United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the quake at 5.6, topping out the April, 9, 1952 5.5 quake that occurred near El Reno as the most powerful quake in state history.
So after experiencing something like this, what do people do?
Well they get on Facebook and post about their experience and thoughts and I joined in.
I quickly learned that my friend in Carthage, Missouri, near Joplin, felt the quake.
She posted that she was watching a movie with her husband and that the quake hit at an intense moment in the movie.
Her husband thought she was jiggling her leg because of the scene and asked her to stop.
She replied that she wasn’t doing anything and then the real shaking occurred.
Many Okies posted that California can keep the quakes and that they prefer tornados while others decided to blame OSU football fans for the earth moving activity.
It may be a surprise to some, but earthquakes have been rattling Oklahoma for sometime.
On March 1, 2010 I published this article on Yahoo Voices!
Oklahoma does have fault lines including the New Madrid Fault which is in the middle of a tectonic plate and extends close to 10 miles deep into the earth’s crust.
Last year the Tulsa Beacon published an article
an article
on the threat this fault may pose.
Last night’s 5.6 quake has caused damaged in the state and 11 more quakes including a 4.0 quake near Meeker, have been recorded between and now, Sunday morning.