Earth Changes
A roar that sounded like a jumbo jet filled the air, and Reneau's red-brick chimney collapsed and fell into the roof above the living room. By the time the shaking stopped, a pantry worth of food had been strewn across the kitchen and shards of glass and pottery covered the floor.
"It was like WHAM!" said Reneau, 75, gesturing with swipes of his arms. "I thought in my mind the house would stand, but then again, maybe not."
The magnitude 5.6 earthquake and its aftershocks still had residents rattled Sunday. No injuries were reported, and aside from a buckled highway and the collapse of a tower on the St. Gregory's University administration building, neither was any major damage. But the weekend earthquakes were among the strongest yet in a state that has seen a dramatic, unexplained increase in seismic activity.
Oklahoma typically had about 50 earthquakes a year until 2009. Then the number spiked, and 1,047 quakes shook the state last year, prompting researchers to install seismographs in the area. Still, most of the earthquakes have been small.
The torrential rains that triggered flash flooding and mudslides in northern Italy during October 2011 were unusual but not completely unexpected according to research performed by scientists at the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate in Bologna, Italy.
The floods in Italy destroyed many buildings and took the lives of at least nine people. Coastal areas near Liguria and Tuscany were particularly hit hard by the heavy rains and Italy has declared a state of emergency for regions damaged by flood waters. On November 3, 2011 emergency management officials evacuated the town of Vernazza in anticipation of more heavy rains to come.
The magnitude 5.6 earthquake in Oklahoma on Saturday night felt was as far as Wisconsin, U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Jill McCarthy said.
"We have had eight recorded earthquakes (in Oklahoma) in the past 24 hours or so," she said.
McCarthy is the team chief scientist with the National Earthquake Information Center in Denver, Colo.
A 4.7 magnitude temblor was reported early Saturday, followed by the 5.6 magnitude earthquake just before 11 p.m., which was the strongest in state history.
A series of smaller earthquakes was reported between the largest quakes, sometimes referred to as aftershocks.
These following the strongest quake in the state's history - one with a magnitude of 5.6 -which rocked the stands at the Oklahoma State University game at 10:53 Saturday night.
It could be felt throughout the state and in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, northern Texas and some parts of Illinois and Wisconsin, said geophysicist Jessica Turner at the U.S. Geological Survey.
There were no reports in the hours after the quakes of any severe injuries or severe damage.
The quake jolted OSU's stadium shortly after the Number 3 Cowboys defeated Number 17 Kansas State.
"That shook up the place, had a lot of people nervous," Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackman said of the late Saturday quake.

Oklahoma has been shaken by a series of earthquakes, culminating in a 5.6 magnitude quake that is the state's biggest on record.
Earthquakes of up to 5.6 magnitude have shaken Oklahoma, damaging buildings and roads and sending a handful of people to hospital.
The first quake was recorded on Saturday morning at a magnitude of 4.7. The second came on Saturday night and is the largest ever recorded in Oklahoma, topping a tremor of 5.5 magnitude in 1952, according to the US Geological Survey.
In Prague, Oklahoma, where the first quake was centred, city manager Jim Greff said part of the town library's ceiling collapsed and a chimney fell through the roof of a home. There were no serious injuries.
Sunday, November 06, 2011 at 03:53:10 UTC
Saturday, November 05, 2011 at 10:53:10 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location:
35.599°N, 96.751°W
Depth:
5 km (3.1 miles)
Region:
OKLAHOMA
Distances:
34 km (21 miles) NNE of Shawnee, Oklahoma
63 km (39 miles) SSE of Stillwater, Oklahoma
68 km (42 miles) ESE of Guthrie, Oklahoma
71 km (44 miles) ENE of OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma
A 4.7 magnitude earthquake rattled homes across central Oklahoma early Saturday.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the initial quake was centered about six miles north of Prague about 2:12 a.m.
That quake was followed by a series of aftershocks. A 3.4 magnitude aftershock was felt moments later followed by another 2.7 magnitude aftershock about five miles southeast of Sparks. Sparks is east of the metro area in Lincoln County.
And those aftershocks continued as a 3.6 magnitude quake struck about 8:36 a.m., also centered about two miles southeast of Sparks.
The National Weather Service in Norman said via its Facebook page the earthquake was felt in Norman and also as far away as weather offices in Topeka, Kan., and Pleasant Hill, Mo.

Workers remove trees around downed lines in Simsbury, Conn., Friday, Nov. 4, 2011. Six days into an epic power outage that still has roughly 300,000 Connecticut residents in the dark, tempers are snapping as fast as the snow-laden branches that brought down wires across the region last weekend.
Angry residents left without heat as temperatures drop to near freezing overnight have been lashing out at Connecticut Light & Power: accosting repair crews, making profane criticisms online and suing. In Simsbury, a hard-hit suburban town of about 25,000 residents, National Guard troops deployed to clear debris have been providing security outside a utility office building.
At a shelter at Simsbury High School, resident Stacy Niezabitowski, 53, said Friday she would love to yell at someone from Connecticut Light & Power but hadn't seen any of its workers.
"Everybody is looking for someplace to vent - not a scapegoat, just someplace to vent your anger so somebody will listen and do something," said Niezabitowski, who was having lunch at the shelter with her 21-year-old daughter. "Nobody is doing anything."
The October nor'easter knocked out power to more than 3 million homes and business across the Northeast, including 830,000 in Connecticut, where outages now exceed those of all other states combined. Connecticut Light & Power has blamed the extent of the devastation partly on overgrown trees in the state, where it says some homeowners and municipalities have resisted the pruning of limbs for reasons including aesthetics.
Cesar Uruena, a Red Cross rescue director, said the landslide buried more than 14 homes in the city of Manizales in Caldas state, 165 kilometres (102 miles) northwest of the capital, Bogota.
Rescuers have reports of 14 people dead and 13 injured, Uruena said.
"We are talking about an average of 60 people missing. This could be a bit speculative, but the number is high," Uruena told The Associated Press by telephone.
He said that because of the many people listed as missing, rescuers would continue the search through the night.
Caldas emergency services director Sandra Lopez said heavy rains pounded the area the night before and caused a part of a mountain to collapse onto the houses.
As a preventative measure, authorities are asking that 35 homes near the landslide site be evacuated.
Source: The Canadian Press
And along the southeast shoreline in the Imperial Valley near Niland lies an explosive history going back thousands of years.
A series of what would appear to be four rather ordinary hills are actually volcanoes known as the Salton Buttes.
"A variety of people, when it comes to the Salton Sea, ask, 'Why invest in the Salton Sea?' There's more of a history to it than what we see here today," said Chris Schoneman, the manager at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge.
One of the volcanoes, a butte called Rock Hill, comes at the end of a hiking trail and provides fantastic views of the sea and wildlife.
"The hill formed about 16,000 years ago. It was an active volcano -- last active about 8,000 to 10,000 years ago," said Schoneman.
Obsidian Butte has more of a volcano-look -- covered with chunks of obsidian rock. Obsidian is volcanic glass that results from lava quickly cooling above ground.
Another volcano, Mullett Island, can only be reached by boat. It's also a nesting spot for 10,000 seabirds.
The hundreds of species of birds are a big draw for the 20,000 yearly visitors to the refuge.
But Schoneman says most don't know anything about the volcanoes there. And it's not like there are lava flows or spewing ash to catch a glimpse of.
But there is molten magma miles below the earth's surface. The geothermal activity is shown by surrounding power plants, tapping into that heat to create electricity.













Comment: SOTT wonders, of course, if all of the recent storm/earthquake/volcanic activity has anything to do with the close passage of the debris field of Comet Elenin as well as the presence of other comets/bodies in the solar system? Perhaps it is time to revisit the Electric Universe theory?