Three earthquakes in a week do not make a swarm. Interesting that the last post on an earthquake in Oklahoma drew earthquake conspiratorialists and “skeptics.” Too many people distrust all science and sources of information these days.
Here’s the dirt on Oklahoma’s shaking in the last week, from the U.S. Geological Service site:
Earthquake List for Map Centered at 36°N, 97°W
Update time = Sat Mar 6 18:00:02 UTC 2010
Here are the earthquakes in the Map Centered at 36°N, 97°W area, most recent at the top.
(Some early events may be obscured by later ones.)
Click on the underlined portion of an earthquake record in the list below for more information.
| MAG | UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s |
LAT deg |
LON deg |
DEPTH km |
LOCATION | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAP | 3.1 | 2010/03/05 20:35:13 | 35.608 | -96.783 | 5.0 | 3 km ( 2 mi) E of Sparks, OK |
| MAP | 2.5 | 2010/03/03 04:35:17 | 35.549 | -97.282 | 5.0 | 2 km ( 1 mi) SSE of Jones, OK |
| MAP | 4.1 | 2010/02/27 22:22:27 | 35.557 | -96.747 | 3.3 | 9 km ( 5 mi) SE of Sparks, OK |
This isn’t unusual at all, of course. I think many people just don’t understand that earthquakes happen all the time, but they usually get crowded out of the newspaper because no one really cares.
For contrast, take a look at this animated map of a strip a little wider than Utah, covering from north of the Yellowstone Caldera to Arizona. Run the animation. Generally on any day there will have been at least two dozen earthquakes in the previous week, several magnitude 3, occasionally a magnitude 4 thrown in.
Almost none of those quakes make any news.
Maybe it’s the Earth, laughing. We can hope.
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it’s mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.(Excerpted from “Solitude,” 1917, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919))
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
[…] “Oklahoma earthquakes: No swarm,” March 6, 2010 […]
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