Two earthquakes rattle North Texas Tuesday

Two earthquakes rattle North Texas Tuesday

STAR-TELEGRAM
01/06/2015 4:11 PM
01/06/2015 8:28 PM

FORT WORTH Two earthquakes within four hours Tuesday rocked the eastern side of the Metroplex, and the second one, a 3.6-magnitude, was the strongest yet.

Aftershocks were reported later, but had not been confirmed at 8:30 p.m.

The latest in a series of nearly 20 earthquakes since November were again near Irving, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The 3.6 quake at 6:52 p.m. was 4 miles east to northeast of Irving.

Earlier in the day, a 3.5-magnitude quake hit 3 miles east to northeast of Irving about 3:10 p.m.

Some Dallas Cowboys said they felt the afternoon quake. The team’s headquarters are at Valley Ranch in Irving.

Wide receiver Cole Beasley said he felt it while sitting on a couch in the locker room.

“It didn’t scare me. It was over before I couldn’t even realize what it was,” Beasley said. “Dwayne [Harris] was like, ‘Did you feel that?’ I was like, ‘Kind of.’ But I didn’t know what that was, I never felt an earthquake before.”

Defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford said the defense was in a team meeting.

“I thought it was BeastMode hitting his back against the wall – that’s Josh Brent,” Crawford said. “We saw the screen shake, and no one really knew what it was. Some guys said, ‘Earthquake.’ I’ve never experienced it. I don’t know what to do when an earthquake hits.”

Crawford was informed it was a 3.5 magnitude.

“It was a 3.5? Is that big? Well, next time we need to be coached what to do in case of an earthquake.”

After the second quake in the evening, people on Twitter said they felt the quakes in Highland Park, Lakewood, Coppell and Skillman.

“My daughters Freaked!” Julie Fisk tweeted from Lovers Lane and Skillman Street.

All of the quakes have been minor, and no major injuries or damage has been reported, except for some cracked walls.

North Texas has had more than 30 minor earthquakes since 2013, and some of the strongest were in November and December 2013.

In 2013, North Texas also had three 3.6-magnitude quakes: Dec. 8 north of Azle, Nov. 28 north of Mineral Wells and Nov. 19 northwest of Azle.

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US Geological Survey records cluster of earthquakes in North Texas; no major damage reported

• Article by: DIANA HEIDGERD , Associated Press
• Updated: January 7, 2015 - 12:50 PM

DALLAS — A cluster of small earthquakes rattled a Dallas suburb for a second day Wednesday as experts turned to seismic data to help determine why.

The temblors in the Irving area included three quakes Wednesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Irving police had no reports of injuries or major damage in the 11 earthquakes that hit the area since Tuesday, but asked the public to stop calling 911 to report the shaking unless someone was hurt or there was another emergency.

The magnitudes ranged from 1.6 to 3.6, according to the USGS. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 to 3.0 are generally the smallest felt by humans, experts say.

Small earthquakes have become more common in Texas and Oklahoma. In October, Texas officials amended rules for disposal well operators amid concerns that high-pressure injections related to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can trigger earthquakes.

Carrieann Bedwell, a geophysicist with the USGS in Golden, Colorado, said scientists would be investigating.

"They will be looking at the parameters, magnitude, depth, location of each of the events," Bedwell said Wednesday.

"Right now we're calling it a swarm, because we've had multitude events happen."

Bedwell described a swarm as earthquakes approximately in the same location in a matter of a few days or so.

"Earthquakes of this size, like 2s, 3s, can happen pretty much anywhere in the world at any time," Bedwell said.

The Irving area, with a population topping 250,000, has had more than 25 minor earthquakes since early September, according to Brian Stump, a seismologist with Southern Methodist University.

"SMU's seismology team is committed to helping North Texans understand more about the increasing number of earthquakes felt in our region over the last few years, most recently near the city of Irving," Stump said in a statement Tuesday.

SMU researchers installed a seismometer in Irving on Monday. Other devices were set up earlier near Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and on the Dallas campus.

Separately, the USGS reported a 3.5 magnitude earthquake Tuesday afternoon near Snyder, about 250 miles west of Irving.

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