Wichita shaken by earthquake

By Rick Plumlee | Wichita Eagle

WICHITA — Yes, that shaking you felt this morning in the Wichita area really was an earthquake.

Shortly after 9 a.m., an earthquake that measured 4.3 on the Richter scale occurred about 10 miles east of Norman, Okla., said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey's earthquake information center in Golden, Colo.

"You definitely would have felt it in Wichita," Blakeman said. "It was an earthquake and not an explosion."

The center initially rated a 4.5 but later dropped it to a 4.3.

Tremors in Wichita lasted for about a minute.

Don Steeples, who teaches earthquake seismology at the University of Kansas, said the energy impact of a 4.3 is equivalent to about a half million pounds of exploding dynamite.

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