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Earthquake Rattles Southern, Central Oklahoma |
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LAWTON, Okla. (AP) -- Joe Maranto has kept a seismograph in his historic Meers Store since 1985, when he started monitoring it for the Oklahoma Geological Survey. On Tuesday, the machine got a real workout. An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 had Maranto and other residents buzzing after it hit at 9:13 a.m. "It felt like the house was coming off its foundation," Maranto said. "This is the biggest we've ever had since '85. Normally that would have broken my needle." He estimated he had up to 150 questioning phone calls within 45 minutes of the earthquake. People then began dropping by his restaurant to confirm that there had been an earthquake and that the shaking wasn't caused by soldiers firing artillery weapons at Fort Sill. "I felt like whatever it was, was going to come out of the floor," said Grace Burns of Elgin. "It was kind of a weird sensation that I don't care to experience again." Kenneth Luza, a geologist with the Norman-based geological survey, said the quake was centered near Lawton in Comanche County between Medicine Park and Richard's Spur. The National Earthquake Information Center of the U.S. Geologic Survey in Golden, Colo., put the preliminary magnitude at 4.2, said Don Blakeman, an earthquake analyst for the center. "We've had reports that it was felt in the Lawton area and as far away as Oklahoma City," Blakeman said. "We even had an individual in a high-rise in Dallas feel it. Earthquakes are felt more easily in a high-rise building." Nancy Elliott, public affairs specialist at Fort Sill, said there was no confirmed damage at the Army post. "There is an older building on post. Some of the soldiers were a little concerned," she said. Engineers were asked to check the building. Maranto's store is located several miles south of the Meers fault, but a scientist said the quake didn't necessarily stem from that fault-line. "It could be on the southeast end of the Meers fault, or it could be off on a smaller, related fault," said Jim Lawson, chief geophysicist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey Observatory at Leonard in Tulsa County. "We can say that over the past 10 years, there hasn't been a magnitude minus-1 on the Meers fault." Lawson said Tuesday's temblor is one of the eight largest ever known to occur in Oklahoma. The last large one occurred in Coal County on Sept. 6. That 4.4-magnitude quake was felt over a wide area, Lawson said. The largest occurred Oct. 22, 1882, possibly near Fort Gibson in northeastern Oklahoma. Lawson said that quake's magnitude was unknown, but it did damage in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. Oklahoma has about 60 earthquakes in a year, usually of a magnitude less than the 2.4 to 2.5 range, Luza said. A quake with a magnitude of 4 can cause moderate damage. Lawson said officials would like for people who felt the quake to contact the observatory and describe what happened in detail. To contact scientists about Tuesday's earthquake, please write to Earthquake, Oklahoma Geological Survey Observatory, Leonard, Okla. 74043, or e-mail them at cgsmithou.edu. Posted to the web on Wednesday, April 29, 1998 |