Re:Magnitude 5.4 earthquake in western Texas
by bell-cot on Thursday November 17, 2022 @06:40AM
(#33637567)
Revision: USGS has updated it down a notch, to magnitude 5.3.
OTOH, one of the 11 aftershocks so far was (from memory) revised up from a 3.X to a 4.1.
IANAG (...Not a Geologist), and kudos to cc101 for pointing out the Rio Grande Rift...but (from a few quick searches) this looks rather far east to really be part of that Rift. Though USGS's 30-day view shows ~30 more quakes, ~20 miles west of this one, and in a rough line pointing west toward the Rift. (Can a north-south rift do that? The Trans-Pecos Volcanic Field isn't all that far south of the 5.3, in the Davis Mountains - but it supposedly went dormant ~17mya. The USGS 'quake map shows no fault in the area...but they show very little of even the Meers fault, up in OK.)
Hopefully there won't be more/bigger 'quakes in that area. It's only 20 miles away from the Red Bluff Reservoir - which is held back by a ~90 year old, 100 foot tall earthen dam. Reservoir capacity is ~150K acre-feet; Pecos, Texas is ~50 miles downstream.
Re:Magnitude 5.4 earthquake in western Texas
by cc101 on Thursday November 17, 2022 @04:17PM
(#33645852)
The quake occurred in an area of seismic activity associated with petroleum extraction. That looks like the most likely explanation. The lower part of the Rio Grande Rift broadens considerably.
OTOH, one of the 11 aftershocks so far was (from memory) revised up from a 3.X to a 4.1.
IANAG (...Not a Geologist), and kudos to cc101 for pointing out the Rio Grande Rift...but (from a few quick searches) this looks rather far east to really be part of that Rift. Though USGS's 30-day view shows ~30 more quakes, ~20 miles west of this one, and in a rough line pointing west toward the Rift. (Can a north-south rift do that? The Trans-Pecos Volcanic Field isn't all that far south of the 5.3, in the Davis Mountains - but it supposedly went dormant ~17mya. The USGS 'quake map shows no fault in the area...but they show very little of even the Meers fault, up in OK.)
Hopefully there won't be more/bigger 'quakes in that area. It's only 20 miles away from the Red Bluff Reservoir - which is held back by a ~90 year old, 100 foot tall earthen dam. Reservoir capacity is ~150K acre-feet; Pecos, Texas is ~50 miles downstream.