Tremors from a 5.6-magnitude earthquake in Oklahoma shook campus late Saturday night.
The earthquake, the largest recorded in Oklahoma, occurred 44 miles northeast of Oklahoma City just before 11 p.m. Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Effects were felt far away from the epicenter, including in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and West Texas.
The brief, gentle shake was the first noticeable earthquake tremors many students, like Josh Clarke, sophomore information systems major from San Antonio, had ever felt.
“I was in a friend’s apartment on the second floor of a 25-year-old building,” Clarke said. “The floor was shifting, and it felt like it was about to give out. I’d never experienced anything like that.”
Janna Oswald, sophomore nursing major from San Jose, Calif., said she’s seen worse.
“I’ve been in at least 10 earthquakes back home, not counting aftershocks,” Oswald said. “I didn’t even feel this one, and I thought it was really funny how everyone else kept talking about it.”
Oklahoma Geological Survey researcher Austin Holland said the earthquake, the largest ever recorded in Oklahoma, hit on a known fault line, according to an AP report. The biggest quake to occur in the state before Saturday was a 5.5-magnitude earthquake reported near El Reno in 1952.
Several aftershocks followed the initial earthquake overnight Saturday, none of which were felt in Abilene.
“I was out of town for the weekend in Dallas, and I never felt it,” said Leigh Foith, junior advertising and public relations major from Dallas. “At first I didn’t believe my friends when they said there was an earthquake in Abilene.”
This was the latest in a series of mid-scale earthquakes. A few people from Abilene felt one that hit near Snyder in September, but the smaller quake’s tremors didn’t travel as far or as strongly as the one in Oklahoma on Saturday.