Recent earthquakes in Oklahoma have been small and are not likely a warning of larger earthquakes in the future, according to authorities.

Earthquakes are not a major concern in Oklahoma, said Randy Keller, Oklahoma Geological Survey interim director.

The earthquake that struck Chile this year was 810,000 times larger than an earthquake that struck Oklahoma recently. This earthquake was a part of the 50 earthquakes Oklahoma experiences in a year, Keller said.

“They’re interesting, and there’s an unusual number of them right now,” Keller said. “But we have had these little pulses of activity in the past, and I do not believe there’s any scenario that they’re building up to something bigger.”

The largest Oklahoma earthquake to occur was in El Reno in 1952, he said.

If another large earthquake were to occur, it would happen in southern Oklahoma where there is a major fault that last moved 1,200 years ago, he said.

Keller said he is not concerned Oklahoma buildings are not prepared for a large earthquake.

Oklahoma has fairly substantial building codes, as with anywhere in the U.S., and the earthquakes’ hazard levels are low enough to not warrant any special building code, he said.

“I’d be the first to sound the alarm if there was any scenario of these things building up to something bigger,” Keller said. “It’s just hard to imagine that.”

The Norman Office of Emergency Management would be responsible for the coordination of the disaster response operations, said David Grizzle, emergency manager for the city of Norman.

Grizzle said it is not common for this area to prepare specifically for earthquake events.

“So for earthquakes in particular it would be hard to evaluate the preparedness state,” he said. “Having said that, the basic tenants of preparedness still apply, i.e. make a plan, build a kit, have a communications plan, etc..”

Grizzle said earthquakes are an identified threat for Oklahoma, notably the New Madrid Fault Line that extends into Oklahoma.

“The key thing is to take action now so they will know how to react if a disaster strikes them,” he said.

The Physical Plant at OU is one part of the campus response to an emergency.

“Regardless of the emergency, the Physical Plant will have the same general responsibilities; however, the nature of the response will depend on the type of emergency, earthquakes included,” said Amanda Toohey, Physical Plant spokeswoman.

Some of the Physical Plant’s responsibilities during an emergency are to coordinate the collection of information to determine the severity of damage caused by the emergency, assist OU Police with the search and closing of damaged campus and debris clearance from roadways, she said.