18 earthquakes in Oklahoma City metro within past 24 hours, agencies investigate:

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — 18 earthquakes in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area within the past 24 hours. How could this be?

Multiple agencies are still investigating this. A state seismologist tells Fox 25 this particular fault , or crack in the earth’s crust where you can get friction that leads to earthquakes, has been active for years.

“Earthquakes can be unnerving, as they are quite unpredictable,” Dr. Jake Walter said.

Dr. Walter says there have been nearly 500 earthquakes on this fault within the past decade, including three magnitude 4 events in 2015 and 2017.

“Back when wastewater disposal was higher in the area.”

The active fault struck again Friday night into Saturday morning.

“There’s no concurrent wastewater disposal in recent times in the last several years nearby this particular fault sequence. So, we don’t really understand why this fault has woken up, so to speak. But we’re continuing to look at it, and continuing to examine the data.”

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission tells Fox 25 this is likely not oil and gas related, and fracking is not happening in the area.

Our Induced Seismicity Department is studying the quakes. At this point, there is no oil and gas activity found in the area to stop. There are no hydraulic fracturing operations, and the deep-formation disposal of oil and gas wastewater that had been linked to earlier quakes in the area was stopped by the OCC some years ago. Again, however, the research continues.

Dr. Walter says he’s continuing to monitor the seismicity of this sequence, or how frequent earthquakes are happening in an area.

“There will be continued aftershocks into the weekend.”

He expects there to be small earthquakes, decreasing in frequency and magnitude in the next several days.

“Now, it’s always possible to have aftershocks that are as big or bigger than the main shocks. So, folks should be prepared.”

Dr. Walter recommends protecting your valuables, and practicing what’s called “drop, cover and hold on.”

“If the shaking is much stronger, you can have things fall down and potentially cause injury. So we always spread the mantra to drop, cover and hold on in case of stronger shaking.”

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