M=4.3 earthquake shakes northern Oklahoma

At 11:59 p.m. local time, a M=4.3 earthquake shook northern Oklahoma, and was widely felt throughout large parts of Kansas. Located near the town of Wakita, just south of the Kansas border, this quake occurred at a depth of 5.6 km, with felt reports coming in from as far away as Wichita and Oklahoma City. The USGS estimates there will be little to no damage.

This earthquake comes less than three weeks after a M=5.8 earthquake, the largest in Oklahoma’s recorded history, shook the small town of Pawnee, as well as parts of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas. Many scientists attribute the large number of earthquakes in Oklahoma to underground wastewater injection by oil and gas companies in the region. Following the Pawnee earthquake, numerous injection wells were closed as state regulators sought to reduce the total amount of wastewater injection in earthquake-prone regions.

Sources: USGS, Bloomberg, Fox News