Oklahoma has experienced 34 earthquakes this year, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey Observatory website. However, Oklahoma earthquakes pose no major threat, especially when compared to those occurring around the world.

OU Geophysics Professor Randy Keller compared an Oklahoma earthquake to the recent earthquake in Chile.

“For the sake of comparison, the energy released by the recent earthquake in Chile was about 1 million times larger than that of our biggest recent earthquake,” Keller said by e-mail.

The reason for this difference in energy is due to plate boundaries.

“Most earthquakes occur along the boundaries of the tectonic plates,” Keller said. “The recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile are examples. Intraplate earthquakes occur away from the plate boundaries, and their causes are poorly understood. The recent earthquake in China is an example.”

Three years ago, a team of U.S. geophysicists paired up with a team of Chinese colleagues to learn more about intraplate earthquakes. Keller is leading the U.S. team and said they have used new instruments to locate the earthquakes more accurately.

“An important issue is that they are occurring deeper in the Earth (5-10 km) than we expected,” Keller said.

Holly Gunzenheiser, communication science disorders sophomore, remembers feeling an Oklahoma earthquake in her apartment in Traditions Square West.

“I was sitting on my bed when it happened,” Gunzenheiser said. “It just felt like the whole room was shaking for about five seconds, and then I felt tiny vibrations for about 30 seconds longer. It happened the same day as the huge earthquake in Chile, so my first reaction was that I was being paranoid.”

Keller does not believe these earthquakes pose any sort of threat to Oklahoma and said the state has a history of small earthquakes.

“The recent activity is not all that anomalous from a historical perspective,” Keller said. “We do not believe that the relatively small quakes we have experienced are leading up to a larger one.”