Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town Survives 5.6 Oklahoma Earthquake

On my way to ALDI today I decided to check in on my neighborhood Prairie Dog Town.

I was concerned that this morning's earthquake might have left the residents of Prairie Dog Town all discombobulated from the unusual shaking.

Upon arrival the Prairie Dogs seemed perfectly happy. Brother and sister, Theo and Ruby, quickly greeted me with their telltale welcoming chirp, soon joined by their big brother, David, who did no chirping.

David is a bit shy. He popped up above ground to see who is siblings were chirping to and then quickly headed back underground, as documented below by my excellent photographic skills.

Then morning's earthquake shook shortly after 7. I was walking toward my kitchen to make coffee when I began to feel a bit wobbly. The wobbly feeling did not last long.

I did not realize I'd been shook by an earthquake til I was informed about such via the news.

A 5.6 shaker which was felt as far north as Nebraska and south into Texas, epicentered near Pawnee, Oklahoma.

I was shaken by many earthquakes during the years I lived on the West Coast. The West Coast earthquakes were extremely LOUD. The first thing that startles one during a West Coast earthquake is the LOUD thundering noise, and then you realize you are shaking and everything around you is moving, trees swaying, windows popping.

Today's earthquake, as experienced in Wichita Falls, was eerily quiet, with the earth moving in total silent mode.

Methinks a frackquake is a different type quake than an earthquake caused when Mother Nature decides to adjust one of her underground fault lines, hence the eerie quiet. If a frackquake is not caused by tectonic plates moving, what causes the frackquakes?

A 5.6 level quake starts to get into the magnitude zone that can cause actual damage. Was this the BIG ONE? Or is a BIGGER ONE coming? What level of earthquake was the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium designed to handle? Or other Texas structures. Like giant highway flyover exchanges, such as Fort Worth's Mixmaster, or the High Five in Dallas.

The Last Monday Of November Freezing & Earthquake Free In Texas

On this last Monday of the next to last month of 2011 I am looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at a swimming pool that could have ice floating in it, if the circulating pump did not stop that from happening.

Because it is below freezing this morning in the outer world at my location on this parched part of the planet.

I have turned on my interior heating device for the first time since last winter. I do not like having to run my interior heating device.

I did not feel any of the 6 earthquakes that have rattled Oklahoma in the past 4 days.

Hyper sensitive to having the earth move, Elsie Hotpepper, usually feels any ground movement within a 200 mile radius.. But I've not heard if Elsie felt any shaking the past 4 days.

I will not be going swimming again this morning. My health is rapidly deteriorating due to this decrease in activity.

Video Of An Okie All Shook Up By Saturday Night's Oklahoma Earthquake

Okie All Shook Up By Oklahoma Earthquake

If you've never experienced an earthquake I can understand how jarring the first ground shaking experience can be.

Even if you grow up and live long in a location where earthquakes and mountains blowing up is fairly common, an earthquake can still be quite unsettling.

During the 1990s, at my old home location in Mount Vernon, there were a couple years where a lot of very low magnitude shallow quakes took place, epicentered a couple miles east of my abode. I remember being on my waterbed when one of them hit and it quickly became rough water, almost tossing me out of bed. Another time I was in my living room watching TV when one hit, the windows popped and flexed, the tall trees swayed and the tile on my kitchen floor cracked.

The biggest quake I've ever felt was a 6.5, epicentered about 70 miles south of my location in Burlington, Washington. It shook for about a minute. It was difficult to walk. I can't imagine what it is like to be near the epicenter of a strong quake.

Elsie Hotpepper was freaked out by Saturday night's Oklahoma quake. Apparently Elsie was quite badly shaken by it. I've not heard from her since she let me know she was all shook up.

In the video below an Okie is talking about a football game and then the Oklahoma earthquake strikes. I assume this was the big one on Saturday night that shook up Elsie Hotpepper....

Earthquakes Keep Shaking Oklahoma & Texas While Seismic Crews Cover Arlington's Veterans Park With Wires

Seismic Crew Working At Arlington's Veterans Park

We have had a lot of seismic activity in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone the past 24 hours. Some of it is locally generated, while the more jolting seismic activity is incoming from Oklahoma, where the earth continues to move with what TX Sharon is calling a "Massive number of earthquakes in Oklahoma."

I have felt none of the Oklahoma shakers, but I did come upon some seismic activity in Arlington today at Veterans Park.

Barnett Shale seismic testers have laid out wire and equipment all over Veterans Park.

The Veterans Park Memorial Soldier
 Guarding Today's Full Parking Lot

Today all that wiring and equipment laying on the ground seemed particularly odd because the park was particularly busy. The north parking lot was completely full. Cars were parking curbside on the road. I managed to find a parking spot in the almost full south parking lot.

How is permission granted to allow wires and equipment to be laid all over a public park? I wondered this years ago at Arlington's River Legacy Park when I had a seismic tester encounter on the mountain bike trail, with the tester going the wrong way on the bike trail on an off-road motorized vehicle. It was dangerous.

Throngs Of Park Goers Trying Not To Trip
Over Seismic Trip Wires

This year seismic testing wire and equipment showed up all over the Village Creek Natural Historical Area, also in Arlington.

And now there are wires on the ground all over Veterans Park.

Today Veterans Park was extra busy due to some sort of Disc Golf event going on. There were Disc Golf holes in locations I don't remember seeing them before. For instance there was a large group of people around the Veterans Park Turtle Pond watching disc golfers throw their disc at a target on the other side of the pond.

Seismic Testing Equipment & Wire Littering Veterans Park

Do the Seismic Testers pay the City of Arlington some sort of fee for the right to lay wire and equipment all over Arlington's public parks?

If someone trips on one of the seismic tripwires and breaks a leg, who's is liable for the injury? The city? Or the seismic testers?

If the seismic testers decide there is some exploitable Barnett Shale under Veterans Park, where will the drill pad site be located?

Seismic Testing Wire Running Up A Veterans Park
Hill That Many People Play On

It sort of surprises me, I suppose because of my northwest mindset, that monkey wrenchers don't wreak havoc with the seismic testing in public parks in Texas.

Or that some well meaning citizen doesn't decide the wire and equipment is littering the park and then gathers it up and toss it in the nearest dumpster.

Very perplexing. I wonder if the earth will move here tonight?

Daylight Savings Time Ends With A Big Earthquake In Oklahoma Felt In Fort Worth

It is a stormy sky we see looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on this first Sunday of the next to last month of 2011.

Currently, at 65 degrees, the outer world in my location is being heated to a temperature 34 degrees warmer than my old location in the state of Washington.

The end of Daylight Savings Time seems to have arrived with no major disruption, other than the sun seemed to arrive earlier than it did yesterday morning.

The earth moved last night in my location, but I did not feel it. Central Oklahoma was hit with an even bigger earthquake by the end of Saturday than it was early Saturday morning.

A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck at 10:53 pm Saturday night, epicentered 44 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. A 5.6 magnitude quake is the strongest recorded in Oklahoma since earthquakes records have been recorded.

Apparently many people in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone reported feeling the quake, including Elsie Hotpepper.

Now that Standard Time has restored order to my immediate world, I think I will go swimming while these balmy temperatures last.

Up With The Sun The First Saturday Of November After A Night Of Oklahoma Earthquakes Thinking About Andy Rooney

I'm looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at the arrival of the sun on the first Saturday of November, day 5, at an outer world chilled to 44 degrees in my location.

That means that that is likely a very cool pool that you see in the picture this morning. I don't know, yet, if me getting in the pool is in the picture this morning.

I did not take the Xanax anti-anxiety medication that my cat doctor prescribed for me.

Even without anti-anxiety medication I slept without any disturbing nightmares that I am able to remember.

I did think I felt the earth move a couple times last night. This may have been related to 3 earthquakes that shook central Oklahoma in the hours past midnight. A 4.7 magnitude quake started shaking at 2:12 am, epicentered about 6 miles north of Prague in southern Lincoln County, about 50 miles east of Oklahoma City.

Then a 3.4 magnitude aftershock shook at 2:27 am, followed by another aftershock shaking at 2:44 am, at 2.7 magnitude.

And in other earthshaking news, Andy Rooney has died at 92 years old, just a short while after he stopped doing his commentaries on 60 Minutes. I did not realize Andy Rooney was that old. Formerly living proof that a person can fire on all cylinders right til the end.

I think I am going to go for some shock therapy now in the form of submerging myself in very cold water.

A 4.5 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Oklahoma Near Norman And Is Felt In North Texas

You are looking at the Richter Scale representation of what happened a short time after 9 this morning.

An earthquake.

Around that time I felt the earth move with that familiar vibration I experienced so many times when I lived in the Pacific Northwest.

This morning vibration was of short duration, about 10 seconds. There was none of the roaring noise I've come to associate with an earthquake.

I figured it was a passing large truck shaking the ground.

And then, a few minutes ago I heard from Elsie Hotpepper asking me if I'd felt the earth move in Fort Worth. Now, I am used to Elsie Hotpepper asking me cryptic questions, the answer to which, at times, is difficult for me to come up with.

So, I Googled "Fort Worth Earthquake" and to my great surprise I learned that at 9:06 AM, Wednesday, October 13, a 4.5 magnitude earthquake, at a depth between 3.1 and 4.4 miles, epicentered about 10 miles east of Norman, Oklahoma, 20 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, gave quite a strong jolt, felt as far away as my location in North Texas.

The biggest quake I've ever experienced was a 6.5, with me 60 or 70 miles north of the epicenter.

A couple years before I moved to Texas, where I lived in Mount Vernon went through a series of quakes of the 2 to 3 magnitude, epicentered just a couple miles east, by Big Lake. Those quakes felt real strong. They caused the windows to sort of bulge, made a real loud noise. The Big Lake Quakes cracked the ceramic tile in my kitchen. I remember, for one of them, I was laying on my waterbed. Suddenly it was like I was on the ocean in rough waves.

Usually with an earthquake there are aftershocks. So, far, I have felt none.