A 5.0 magnitude earthquake shook central Oklahoma on Sunday night, its effects felt as far away as Dallas, Kansas City and Little Rock.
The quake hit at 7:44 p.m. CT, with its epicentre near Cushing, Okla., about 50 miles south-east of Tulsa, The Dallas Morning News reported.
The quake was about 3.8 miles deep, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. It initially put the earthquake at 5.3 magnitudes.
Several buildings were damaged in Cushing, the fire department reported, but police said there were no reports of injuries.
The USGS recorded 1,010 earthquakes of a magnitude 3.0 or greater in the region last year, nearly three times as many as the 318 temblors of this magnitude in 2009, ABC News reported.
Oklahoma alone felt 619 quakes of a magnitude 2.8 or larger from January through June of this year.
The increase of high-magnitude earthquakes in the region has been tied to the surge in oil and gas operators' use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which water, sand and chemicals are injected at high pressures into the earth to release oil and gas trapped inside the rock.
Two other earthquakes, measuring 3.1 and 3.6 magnitudes, have struck near Perry, Okla., in the last 24 hours.
The quake hit at 7:44 p.m. CT, with its epicentre near Cushing, Okla., about 50 miles south-east of Tulsa, The Dallas Morning News reported.
The quake was about 3.8 miles deep, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said. It initially put the earthquake at 5.3 magnitudes.
Several buildings were damaged in Cushing, the fire department reported, but police said there were no reports of injuries.
The USGS recorded 1,010 earthquakes of a magnitude 3.0 or greater in the region last year, nearly three times as many as the 318 temblors of this magnitude in 2009, ABC News reported.
Oklahoma alone felt 619 quakes of a magnitude 2.8 or larger from January through June of this year.
The increase of high-magnitude earthquakes in the region has been tied to the surge in oil and gas operators' use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which water, sand and chemicals are injected at high pressures into the earth to release oil and gas trapped inside the rock.
Two other earthquakes, measuring 3.1 and 3.6 magnitudes, have struck near Perry, Okla., in the last 24 hours.