Kansas Earthquake Today - The 4.8 tremor Wednesday afternoon that hit Kansas is an unusually strong one. The Kansas earthquake today was also felt hundreds of miles away, including northern Oklahoma and parts of Arkansas.
The recent temblor was reportedly the largest since a series of quakes started rattling Kansas a little more than a year ago and also in the last 24 hours.
The magnitude 4.8 Kansas earthquake today struck at approximately 3:40 p.m. CST, with the epicenter 33 miles southwest of Wichita and a depth of 3.1 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
There were no reported injuries from the Kansas earthquake today, but some structural damage was apparent, mostly in nearby Milan, Kan.
A Sedgwick County resident told a 911 dispatcher that the quake managed to moved him and his recliner "about eight inches across the floor."
The USGS has said that one likely factor in the dramatic rise of earthquakes in the area is wastewater injection, a byproduct of the the oil and gas industry's practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The region where the Kansas earthquake today struck is reportedly located at the heart of the state's mini oil-and-gas boom involving fracking. Now, state and federal agencies are trying to determine whether the controversial technique has indeed been responsible for the significant increase in earthquakes over the past two years.
Meanwhile, energy companies have denied the connection, stating that the state has always been prone to earthquakes, according to USA Today.
A commissioned panel by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback revealed that there wasn't enough evidence to link the Kansas tremors to oil and gas exploration, the Associated Press reports.
Still, hours before the Kansas earthquake today struck the region, Brownback announced that the state would be deploying six portable monitors to track ground movement in Sumner County and its neighbors in fracking, Harper and Barber counties.
The $85,000 network was reportedly recommended in September by Brownback's task force that studied the escalating seismic activity. The network is expected to be in full operation early next year.
The upsurge in earthquakes in the state, which includes the Kansas earthquake today, started occurring in the fall of 2013. Before the Wednesday's quake, Kansas has undergone 93 earthquakes in 2014, according to the USGS. The quakes randomly ranged from magnitude 1.3 to 4.3.
All occurred near Sumner, Harper and Barber counties. A 4.1 quake also reportedly hit the area in September.
Last week, there were a reported 40 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas, the USGS reported. The Kansas earthquake Wednesday afternoon was the strongest so far.
On Tuesday, a magnitude-2.6 quake also rattled Anthony, Kan., in Harper County.
Meanwhile, across the border, six earthquakes also rattled north-central Oklahoma. They registered between magnitude 2.6 and 2.9, also on Wednesday.
The moderately strong Kansas earthquake today was felt across the majority of the state, and even as far away as Tulsa, Okla. which is about 170 miles away.
Sharon Watson, Kansas Emergency Management spokeswoman, said the only damage was an uprooted tree that cracked a home's foundation.
In Oklahoma, there were also no reported damages, according to Keli Cain, a spokeswoman at the state's Department of Emergency Services.
Arkansas residents reported having felt the shaking in the Kansas earthquake today.
Farmer Scott Van Allen, living just 15 miles from the epicentre of the temblor, said he was taking a break from remodeling his garage in Clearwater when the walls and ground started shaking. He added that the Kansas earthquake today was the first tremor he could recall feeling.
"It was a little spooky," Van Allen recalled.
Andrea Hutchison of Canton, Oklahoma was in a state Senate committee room at the Capitol discussing property rights issues with lawmakers and other individuals.
"I felt the earth move," Hutchison said.
The Kansas earthquake today fortunately had no fatalities. The strongest earthquake in the history of Kansas was a magnitude 5.1 quake in 1867, which also struck Manhattan.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
