Record Oklahoma Earthquake Felt in Area; Fracking Link Suspected

One of the biggest earthquakes to ever hit the area was felt Saturday morning. Numerous people around the area were woken up by it. There was an initial tremor big enough to rattle the closet door in our bedroom, then a smaller tremor. The shock could be felt as far north as Des Moines and Ottumwa (IA) and as far south as Dallas. It was felt as far east as Tennessee and as far west as Arizona.

The shock was one of the biggest quakes to hit Oklahoma. It registered at 5.6 on the Richter Scale. Earthquakes like it and thousands of others in the area have been attributed by scientists and regulators to the disposal of millions of tons of wastewater that is then pumped to the surface as part of hydraulic fracking. A similar quake was felt in Prague (OK) back in 2011. Multiple news outlets reports that state regulators have ordered well operators to stop wastewater injections in a 725 square mile ellipse around the quake’s epicenter. The State of Oklahoma declared a state of emergency.

The Oklahoma TV station KFOR reports that many people are worried about the state of bridges in the state despite assurances from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation that there were only two bridges that have what they called “cosmetic damage.” The group “Fix Your Roads Oklahoma” alleges that one bridge on Highway 64 near Morrison had an 18” by 24” chunk that fell off of a bridge that they say has already been beaten up.

The fault lines in Oklahoma are not the worst ones to worry about for Missouri. The New Madrid Fault Line is one of the biggest areas for seismic activity in the US. The Missouri DNR states that the region is overdue for a quake of 6.0 or so on the Richter Scale, while saying there is a 7-10% chance of a 7.5 or 8.0 quake similar to the one in 1811-1812. Fox 2 of St. Louis reports that insurance deductibles for a normal home in the area are as high as $30,000.

Alaska Quake Raises Concerns About Oil Safety

A recent 7.5 earthquake off the coast of Alaska that could be felt as far away as Oregon raises concerns about the safety of deep water drilling operations. Aftershocks as high as 5.2 were reported. The quake, which hit Saturday evening, triggered tsunami warnings for hundreds of miles from Alaska to the northern tip of Vancouver, Canada; these warnings were later canceled. While there is not enough evidence as of Sunday evening to suggest that drilling caused this particular earthquake, it is possible to generate earthquakes through drilling.

In northeast Ohio last year, the Associated Press reported that a well used to dispose wastewater from oil and gas drilling “almost certainly” caused 11 minor earthquakes in that area, the biggest of which measured 4.0 on the Richter Scale. Injection wells have been suspected of causing quakes in Arkansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma.

The US Geological Survey says that while oil drilling can cause earthquakes, it cannot cause the kind that are reported in the news. That is because oil is found in soft and squishy sediments while most major earthquakes occur in hard rocky slabs that slide against each other, releasing tremendous amounts of energy.
But as oil reserves become exhausted and oil companies go deeper and deeper to get more oil, the risk is that there will be more pressure at greater depths. The farther down you drill, the higher the pressure you encounter. This increases the risk of a high-level earthquake as well as the risk of another BP tragedy; the oil is still seeping out of the BP well today in the Gulf Coast. This could cause massive economic and environmental damage and drive the price of gas even higher than the present $3 per gallon.

And the rush to drill for more oil could impact the quality of life. An April 2012 study by the US Geological Survey found that the frequency of earthquakes between Alabama and Montana from the 20th century to 2011 is sixfold; there were 134 such quakes in 2011. The study found that the cause was increased oil and gas drilling operations. This includes the New Madrid, MO fault line, which was the site of three successive earthquakes that were over 7.0 on the Richter Scale in 1811 and 1812 that could be felt as far away as Virginia.

At the same time of the Alaska quake, a Shell oil rig has run aground near Kodiak, Alaska and officials are in a quandary about how to remove it. Although the site of the recent Alaska quake and the oil disaster are hundreds of miles apart, Kodiak would have been in the path of a tsunami had one happened; that would have triggered a disaster bigger than the BP spill.

New Madrid Earthquake Remains Central Topic

Earthquakes – and large ones at that – threaten to shake residents and buildings of the central and eastern United States, a reality that scientists, emergency responders and others hope to drive home during the bicentennial of the 1811 and 1812 New Madrid earthquakes. Scientific presentations and discussions about these historic events and recent major earthquakes conclude today at the annual Seismological Society of America Meeting in Memphis.

During 1811-12, the central Mississippi River Valley was violently shaken by a series of three earthquakes above a magnitude 7, and up to 200 aftershocks between magnitude 4 and 7.

A similar risk exists today in the New Madrid seismic zone, which threatens Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. Recent projections by the U.S. Geological Survey place the likelihood of a magnitude 6 or higher earthquake at about 25-50 percent over the next few decades, whereas a magnitude 7 or higher has a 10 percent chance of occurring.

Related Podcasts

New Madrid Earthquake Bicentennial

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With large cities like Memphis, St. Louis, and Nashville well within range of a large-scale New Madrid earthquake, understanding the science of earthquakes and the area’s geologic history helps communities prepare for earthquake hazards and prevent them from becoming catastrophes.

“If we build good buildings, there’s no reason any building should collapse; there’s no reason any person should die in an earthquake,” said Dr. Michael Blanpied, associate coordinator of the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. He and other scientists from around the globe are discussing this hazard as well as recent seismic events that have occurred, including the Japanese and New Zealand earthquakes. The meeting concludes on Friday.

Blanpied emphasized that residents outside of the west coast need to realize that earthquakes can affect them too. In fact, earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. can have far greater effects than their western equivalents. Western rock is fairly young, which means it absorbs a lot of the shaking caused by earthquakes. Thus, western earthquakes result in intense shaking close to the epicenter, but fade quickly the farther they travel.

Not so in the central and eastern United States.

“Here, the rocks are old, and really ring like a bell when an earthquake strikes,” Blanpied explains. The result—large earthquakes in the central and eastern states can travel nearly half the distance of the continental United States. The February 1812 New Madrid earthquake was felt as far east as North and South Carolina, some 750 miles away from the epicenter in New Madrid, in what would become the state of Missouri.

The source of these earthquakes was the Reelfoot fault, part of a 120-mile-long New Madrid seismic zone. This seismic zone is a system of faults that lies well within the North American tectonic plate, as opposed to the more familiar faults that mark the boundaries between plates.

For more information on the earthquake science of the New Madrid seismic zone, please listen to a Corecast interview with Mike Blanpied, available here. More information about New Madrid earthquakes can be found online.

Additional information about the history and events related to the New Madrid Bicentennial may be found at the New Madrid Bicentennial website and Central U.S. Great Shakeout website. A recent USGS publication about residents being prepared can be found at Putting Down Roots.

Hospitals Prepare For Response To All Hazards

by Herb Kuhn

President & CEO

Missouri Hospital Association

The images from Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and subsequent reactor disaster have prompted many Missourians to ask “Are we ready?” It is a fair question.

Readiness is a journey, not a destination. However, Missouri’s hospitals are significantly better prepared than they were a decade ago. Since 2002, hospitals have benefitted from federal funds through the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to expand our readiness efforts. The value of this funding has been further enhanced through our coordination with local, regional and statewide partners, including the state’s emergency response organizations.

Through the program, hospitals have been supplied with disaster-specific equipment to augment their capacity to respond. They also can benefit from deployable regional supply and equipment caches. In addition, we’ve significantly enhanced hospitals’ communications capacity and interoperability so that they can talk to each other and other emergency management organizations more efficiently. This winter’s paralyzing snowstorms provided an opportunity to test our improved communication systems — with great success.

Knowing how to use the tools is vital. Between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011, hospitals will have held more than 350 hospital-specific readiness exercises. In May, numerous Missouri hospitals will participate in a national level exercise organized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense that simulates response to an earthquake along the New Madrid fault line. The May NLE will take hospitals’ planning to the next level.

Despite the gut-wrenching scenes from Japan, severe weather — such as a tornado or an ice storm — is the most prevalent threat here in Missouri. However, to prepare for any contingency, hospital planning embraces an “all hazards” approach. Since January 2000, 27 federal disaster or emergency declarations have been issued for Missouri. We know it isn’t a question of “if” but rather “when.” It’s our goal to be prepared and ready to serve our patients and communities 24/7.

MHA’s report, “Missouri Hospitals’ Emergency Preparedness: Accomplishments and Next Steps” is available at www.mhanet.com.

Radiation from Japan Disaster has Spread to Worth County, Rest of US

Measurable amounts of radiation from the Japan nuclear disaster have spread all the way to Massachusetts according to the Associated Press. That would mean that it has spread to Worth County and most of the rest of the country. The Associated Press quoted a Massachusetts public health official as saying that the radiation measured is not harmful and that it has a short life of only eight days. Fallout has also reached Canada.

Scientists say that the potential for a Japan-style disaster along the New Madrid Fault Line, the nearest to the area, is much less. The Japan nuclear plants survived the earthquake with minimal damage; it was the tsunami one hour later which knocked out the backup generators and which triggered the disaster. The US is conducting a major disaster drill along the fault lines this spring just in case.

Federal agencies exercise caution with Japanese food imports

U.S. agencies are playing it safe with food imports from areas near the Japanese nuclear reactors damaged in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

On March 22, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) outlined efforts to protect Americans from tainted food.

“In truth, there are a very small percentage of products that could be affected that come into the United States from Japan,” said Ellen Schuster, a nutrition specialist with University of Missouri Extension. “The FDA says that it’s stopping the import of dairy products and produce from the parts of Japan where there is radiation from the damaged nuclear plants.”

Less than 4 percent of overall U.S. imports and less than 2 percent of our seafood come from Japan.

The FDA controls inspection of more than 80 percent of the food supply, from seafood to produce and dairy products.

For additional safety, the FDA is scanning any food products that come into the U.S. specifically from the four Japanese prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma. These areas surround the damaged nuclear plants; tests will determine whether products are free of radioactive contamination.

Schuster said it’s important that U.S. authorities take a careful approach and not feed into unfounded fears. That’s why screening is a better approach than banning all imports.

“Other products that come into the U.S. from Japan like seafood, snack foods, processed fruits and vegetables will be screened for radiation,” Schuster said. “The FDA will monitor foods coming in, will sample foods and actually have a list of food manufacturers from the affected region, so they know when food coming to our ports should receive special attention.”

The USDA said that the U.S. currently imports no beef or poultry from Japan and has not for more than a year. NOAA said it’s highly unlikely that seafood will be affected because the great amount of water in the Pacific Ocean will diffuse and reduce any radioactive contaminants to a very low concentration, but the FDA still plans to monitor it.

For more information:

-Questions about radiation and food (FDA): http://1.usa.gov/ejDkfs.

-Information on radiation safety (USDA): http://1.usa.gov/hMf2Je.

Likelihood Increases for Nuclear Plant in Worth County, Region

FOX News reports that in the light of the Japan nuclear disaster, US officials are considering whether to locate new reactors in less populous areas. This means that this region, including Worth County, is a possible site down the road for a nuclear reactor. However, there are limitations for any possible nuclear plant in the area. Water would be a problem; there is not a lot of water in the region, a fact which has hindered growth in the region in the past several decades. Contamination of that water would be another issue along with the proximity of the area to the New Madrid Fault Line. There has been an increased interest in nuclear power as an alternative to dirtier coal and as a means of ending dependence on foreign oil.

Disaster-readiness resources from MU Extension

Articles/news releases

Being prepared for spring storms is a necessity for Missouri residents: http://extension.missouri.edu/main/spotlight/springstorms.aspx

MU guide helps you build family disaster plan: http://extension.missouri.edu/news/DisplayStory.aspx?N=907

Prepare emergency supplies for spring storm season: http://extension.missouri.edu/news/DisplayStory.aspx?N=710

Batten down the hatches; storm shelters make sense in disaster-prone Missouri: http://extension.missouri.edu/news/DisplayStory.aspx?N=712

Coping with Disaster feature articles: http://missourifamilies.org/features/copingarticles/

Publications and videos

(To access publications, use the links below or go http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/ and search by publication number.)

EMW1001, Statewide Disaster Response/Recovery Contact List

EMW1011, Family Disaster Plan – A template to guide families through the process of developing a comprehensive disaster plan.

EMW1012, Disaster Supplies Kit – A downloadable guide to gathering the supplies your family will need if a disaster strikes.

EMW1015, Sizing and Safety Tips for Standby Power Generators

EMW1016, Generator Safety Concerns Video

EMW1019, Tornado Season: Are You Ready?

EMW1021, Taking Shelter From the Storm: Safe Rooms Video

G1905, Is Your Family Prepared for an Earthquake?

MP904, Resources for Your Flooded Home

Other links

MU Extension Community Emergency Management Program (CEMP): http://extension.missouri.edu/cemp

Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) resources: http://eden.lsu.edu