Earthquake in Oklahoma City - October 13, 2010

Tim Vasquez

Tim Vasquez

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Did anyone in Norman or OKC hear an explosion or sonic boom at 9:05 am? It was pretty loud and lasted about 8 to 10 seconds. I tried searching Twitter and found nothing, and of course nothing on the news sites.

EDIT -- A family friend said her husband heard it in Moore, and she heard it strongly in her house in Norman itself. We are 12 miles east of Norman. I'm guessing one of the Air Force planes decided to go supersonic. Our friend in town seems convinced it was an earthquake though.

Tim
 
Reports coming saying it was felt in Tulsa, Ponca, etc. so definitely a significant tremor. Well, at least this breaks the off-season monotony a little bit. :)
 
I recall being awoken by an earthquake in Indiana a few years back. Not the typical place to experience such a thing. One of the reasons I awoke so qucikly was because of a very old window rattling as if someone were on the other side banging it. But I think of hearing such an event and must ask... what the hell did it sound like Tim?
 
Norman,OK Earthquake

Wow! Woke to a 4.3 Magnitude earthquake, which was centered ~5 miles east of Norman, OK (my location). I live on the second floor of a poorly constructed apartment building, so it was shaking like crazy. I immediately thought, "earthquake", but also thought it could have been a large truck plowing through the unit below mine. I knew it was an earthquake when I did not discover the tail end of a truck poking from the unit downstairs.

Link to USGS:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2010ciay.php

My summary:

http://www.stormgasm.com/10-13-10/10-13-10.htm

Simon
 
I'm in OKC. Not only did I feel it, I heard it. It was so interesting. I realized that the couch I was sleeping on shouldn't be rocking me. I immediately knew what it was. I went outside and could still hear the remnants of it.
 
Terrence Cook said:
But I think of hearing such an event and must ask... what the hell did it sound like Tim?
Click to expand...

It was like a large, distant explosion, which lasted about 5 seconds and faded quickly over the next 5 seconds. We used to have B-52s on the Nellis Range that would do carpet bombing (thankfully 10+ miles away) and it sounded a lot like that, so I was worried that another Federal Building incident had happened. Also I didn't feel any actual shaking or swaying, though the house was rattling and I thought it was because of sound waves.

The USGS has the epicenter near 96th & Lindsey in Norman, with error of about 4 miles.

Oklahoma City news media really dropped the ball. By 9:30 am or so apparently dozens of our friends across OKC, Moore, and Norman had been calling and texting each other about this, but we checked again on the local stations and saw they were still running normal programming like nothing had happened. Finally quake.usgs.gov placed an epicenter on Oklahoma, which helped ease our concerns a bit, though of course a lot of non-earthquake events do make it onto the seismograms.

Tim
 
I felt it in Broken Arrow. At first, my chair started shaking-I turned around & looked behind me because I thought someone was screwing with me. When I turned back around, an office door nearby started rattling and my computer monitor was swaying back and forth.
Concerning the news media, Facebook immediately had posts indicating the earthquake, including KJRH. Not sure of TV coverage tough as I don't get broadcast TV in the office.
 
I've felt a few minor earthquakes in the past, but this one was the most significant I've experienced. I was also surprised to hear the 'rumble' noise. I'm on the second floor of a poorly built apartment in Norman, so I think the affects of the shaking may have been amplified by the weak structure.
 
This was the first one I've ever experienced. I was on the second floor at three partners. A nice interesting conversation piece this morning and some excitement. I doubt I'll ever feel another one that strong.
 
Wow form the souds of it this earthquake made some nosie. Might have been all that rock breacking below ground. There have been reports of nosiy earthquakes before but this one is jsut plain crazy. I know they do not have earthquake resistent structures in Oklaohma so this could have been really bad. Guess tornadoes are not the only thing they have to worry about anymore. Whats' next a volcano?
 
Heard on the radio there was a 3.8 in Northern Arkansas Monday morning. I would love to feel an earthquake.... where are all the earthquake predictors? Didn't hear a word about this one in OK, or I would have been there :D
 
Chance Metz said:
Wow form the souds of it this earthquake made some nosie. Might have been all that rock breacking below ground. There have been reports of nosiy earthquakes before but this one is jsut plain crazy. I know they do not have earthquake resistent structures in Oklaohma so this could have been really bad. Guess tornadoes are not the only thing they have to worry about anymore. Whats' next a volcano?
Click to expand...

LOL...Chance, noise with earthquakes is commonplace, not crazy at all. I've experienced countless earthquakes before in Washington, and when the earth moves, it often rumbles and you hear rattling from objects moving. The silent ones we would have would be the lower magnitude tremors that would just make our swinging lamps sway back and forth. You don't always hear that rumbling from stuff moving, but you will hear it more often than not, if it's a 4.0 or so. Also probably depends on the type of fault causing the earthquake, and how the ground is moving.

Here's my account of the event on my blog: http://bit.ly/aZTUDZ
 
I was at work when it happened but we have had roofers detouring our office for weeks so I thought the loud bang and vibrating roof was them. I don't recall anything else in our office moving or swaying including our suspended lights. My boss said everything at here place was shaking. My sister in Tulsa is on the 10th floor of an office building and she said everything in her office shook and swayed. I wish I would have felt it. Oh well.
 
I am in far north Edmond and we heard it. I didn't feel anything but the noise was incredible. I never would have guessed it to be an earthquake. Perhaps because it was my first experience.
 
I was in my office in west OKC when it occurred. I thought someone had drove a forklift into a wall at a decent amount of speed because the shaking was fairly heavy. Pretty cool to experience it.
 
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