The third largest earthquake ever recorded in the U.S. state of Oklahoma rocked its western parts on Saturday morning.
Two quakes hit at 11:07 and 11:17 local time, 95 miles northwest of Oklahoma City, according to USGS. The recent rise in earthquake frequencies has been blamed on fracking.
Tulsa World reports:
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The quake registered a 5.1 magnitude and was recorded northwest of Fairview at 11:07 a.m., according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey.
A 3.9 aftershock followed about 10 minutes after the earthquake, according to the USGS.
At 5.1, the temblor will be the state’s third-largest earthquake, according to Oklahoma Geological Survey data.
The state’s largest earthquake is a 5.6 recorded out of Prague in 2011. The second was a 5.5 recorded near El Reno in 1952. Before Saturday, those two were the only quakes in state history to exceed a 5.0 magnitude.
Saturday’s quake surpassed a 4.8 recorded on Jan. 6 for this year’s largest earthquake. Both the 4.8 and Saturday’s 5.1 were centered near Fairview, according to USGS data.
Before Saturday, Oklahoma had been shaken by seven earthquakes of at least 4.0 magnitude in 2016. Those quakes were all recorded within the first eight days of January.
The strongest of those — the 4.8 on Jan. 6 — was among a swam of 32 earthquakes recorded over a period of about 24 hours.
Through Friday evening, Oklahoma had recorded 133 quakes this year that measured at least 3.0, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
