Five earthquakes hit central Oklahoma early Tuesday

The 4.3 magnitude earthquake, with aftershocks, that struck Oklahoma is small, compared with Tuesday's 7.8 magnitude earthquake near the Iran-Pakistan border. The Red Cross expects no injuries in Oklahoma.

Five earthquakes shook central Oklahoma early Tuesday, with the highest 4.3 magnitude quake hitting at 1:56 a.m., Central time.

The temblors began at around 1:45 a.m. near the city of Chandler, Okla., which is about 30 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, the US Geological Survey reports. An official answering the dispatch line for the Oklahoma County Sheriff's office told the Associated Press that they have received no reports of damage or injuries.

Jana Pursley, a USGS geophysicist, told the Associated Press that all the quakes were shallow, measuring about three miles deep, which is common for the area. She added that it is common for several earthquakes to occur during a short period of time.

The most recent quake occurred at 5:16 a.m. near Luther, Okla., at a magnitude of 4.2. The quakes were felt in Oklahoma City, where the Oklahoma Zoo tweeted, “that was certainly wild.”

“At this point, it looks like a main shock, aftershock sequence. There are even a bunch of smaller ones,” Austin Holland, a geophysicist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey in Norman, told the Oklahoman in Oklahoma City. He is collecting data from Tuesday’s quakes to see if there were more than five.

The Oklahoma Red Cross tweeted that they “are not anticipating damage” from the earthquakes. And although earthquakes east of the Colorado Rockies are infrequent, the Red Cross advises people to know how to react during an earthquake event. Their recommended action:  Drop, cover, and hold on. It’s a message that is part of a larger regional campaign, ShakeOut, which the Red Cross has been advertising in several central US states including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

“Oklahoma is not immune to earthquakes,” the Red Cross said in a statement in January. The strongest earthquake in Oklahoma happened in November 2011, a 5.6 magnitude earthquake during which 2 people were injured and 14 homes were destroyed.

The Oklahoma earthquakes are small compared to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred near the Iran-Pakistan border at 3:15 local time Tuesday.  Iran declared a state of emergency and dozens of people are feared dead. This is the second earthquake within a week that has caused severe damage in southern Iran.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Five earthquakes hit central Oklahoma early Tuesday
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2013/0416/Five-earthquakes-hit-central-Oklahoma-early-Tuesday
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe