Magnitude-5.1 earthquake strikes near Midland, Texas, as thousands report shaking

A uncommon robust earthquake struck close to Midland, Texas, on Monday night, triggering greater than 1,000 experiences of shaking, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The temblor, initially measured at magnitude 5.1, struck at 7:49 p.m. at a depth of about 5 miles beneath the floor, round 21 miles west-southwest of Ackerly, based on the company.

No accidents had been initially reported.

The USGS acquired greater than 1,400 experiences of shaking. Individuals as far-off as Fort Value — 282 miles east — and Austin — 322 miles southeast — reported feeling the earthquake.

The USGS stated in a abstract of the area’s modern geologic exercise that temblors east of the Rocky Mountains are usually felt for longer distances and do extra injury even when they’ve comparable magnitude scores.

“Earthquakes east of the Rockies which might be centered in populated areas and huge sufficient to trigger injury are, equally, more likely to trigger injury out to higher distances than earthquakes of the identical magnitude centered in western North America,” it stated.

Ackerly is about 60 miles north of Midland. The world is understood for fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a course of that injects water at excessive stress into the bottom to extract oil.

“There’s proof that some central and japanese North America earthquakes have been triggered or attributable to human actions which have altered the stress situations in earth’s crust sufficiently to induce faulting,” the USGS stated in its evaluation of the area.

No hyperlink between fracking and Monday’s earthquake has been established, nevertheless.

The USGS says that fracking could be linked to a small proportion of earthquakes and that extra are attributable to wastewater disposal.