Five earthquakes rocked central Oklahoma early today, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The most powerful tremor struck at about 2:00, central time this morning, northeast of Luther. That's a little less than 30 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. The quake's magnitude was 4.2. Other tremors had magnitudes between 2.8 and 4.2.
Geophysicist Austin Holland told reporter Michael Cross of member station K-O-S-U that scientists will investigate what's behind the tremors. "We've seen cases where it's possible that earthquakes have been triggered from hydraulic fracturing and we look into other manmade causes as well." Holland said he's not aware of any hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, going on in the area.
Holland told the Oklahoman "At this point it looks like a main shock, aftershock sequence. There are even a bunch of smaller ones." He added the largest quake in Oklahoma history was in November, 2011 and had a magnitude of 5.7.
Although there are no reports of damage or injuries, the Oklahoma Red Cross is ready with advice: "Drop. Cover. Hold On. That's the best move during an earthquake."
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