Oklahoma Leads The World In Seismic Activity As 2015 Quake Count Tops 5,000
With geologists having confirmed the link between fracking and earthquakes in Oklahoma (and energy executives trying to get those geologists fired), the news this week that The Sooner State leads the world in seismic activity will likely see more uproar from residents.. and more lobbying dollars spent to ‘calm’ the politicians. As KFOR reports, this year, more than 5,000 earthquakes have been recorded and experts say earthquakes in Oklahoma will likely increase in magnitude over time warning that it’s only a matter of time before the state gets a big one that will change life for those of living there.
“It’s unclear exactly how high we might go, and the predictions are upper 5-6 range for most things that I’ve seen,” Todd Halihan, a researcher from OSU, told KFOR NewsChannel4,
Halihan studies these quakes; his expertise is hydrogeophysics.“Underneath any of these urban areas, whether it’s Stillwater, Cushing, Oklahoma City, Guthrie, these cities are not built to seismic standards. They’re not in L.A.” Halihan said.
“We have a lot of buildings that were built with earthquakes not even on the radar screen, so we would expect probably a fair bit of damage,” Halihan said.
“We’re not out ahead of it yet, we still have fires burning, and we’re trying to get ahead of those fires, but we’re not there yet,” Matt Skinner, spokesperson for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, said.
“The changing point I think was the Prague quake, because as a result of that, we had a hearing as to how we should proceed in the Prague area for oil and gas exploration,” Skinner says.
Many people believe the commission is sitting back and watching the quakes happen, but they say that’s not the case.
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