Oklahoma earthquakes

M4.2 earthquake 4 km N of Breckinridge, Oklahoma

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake struck 4 km N of Breckinridge, Oklahoma on Sun, Mar 4, 2018, 5:17 PM CST (23:17 UTC), 8 km (5 mi) below the surface.

A larger quake followed: M4.6 5 km WNW of Lucien, Oklahoma. This one was a foreshock.

North Enid forecast More in Oklahoma

Map

Where this earthquake was located, with the others nearby. Select one for its page.

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The earthquake

Magnitude: 4.2 (Mwr, regional moment), light
Magnitude from: USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Local time: Sun, Mar 4, 2018, 5:17 PM CST
UTC: 2018-03-04 23:17:17 UTC
Depth: 8.1 km (5.0 mi), shallow
Epicenter: 36.478° N, 97.741° W
Region: Oklahoma
Felt reports: 2,000
Strongest shaking: V, moderate shaking
PAGER alert: Green
Tsunami flag: No
Status: Reviewed by a seismologist

Deaths and damage

From NOAA NCEI’s Significant Earthquake Database (record 10580), matched to this event by time and place.

Damage: Moderate (about $1 to $5 million)
Houses destroyed: Some (about 51 to 100) with its tsunami and other effects
Houses damaged: Some (about 51 to 100)

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA’s full record of this earthquake

What happened

The USGS’s account of the effects of this earthquake.

Some buildings damaged at Breckenridge and Enid.

From the USGS event page for us2000dc7w. U.S. Geological Survey text and figures are in the public domain.

Shaking

The USGS ShakeMap: shaking estimated from seismic stations and the quake’s size, on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.

Strongest estimated: V, moderate shaking
Peak ground acceleration: 15.9% of gravity
Peak ground velocity: 1.4 cm/s
Map: Automatic

USGS ShakeMap: estimated shaking intensity around the epicenter — Estimated shaking intensity. Map: USGS ShakeMap.

Did you feel it?

2,000 people reported to the USGS what they felt; the strongest reported shaking was VI, strong shaking.

Estimated impact

The USGS PAGER system estimates deaths and economic losses from the shaking and the population and buildings exposed to it.

Alert level: Green: little or no damage or loss of life expected

Deaths: estimated chance of each range
Range	Chance
Under 1	69%
1 to 10	29%
10 to 100	2%
100 to 1,000	Under 1%
1,000 to 10,000	Under 1%
10,000 to 100,000	Under 1%
100,000 to 10,000,000	Under 1%

Economic losses: estimated chance of each range
Range, million USD	Chance
Under 1	65%
1 to 10	30%
10 to 100	4%
100 to 1,000	Under 1%
1,000 to 10,000	Under 1%
10,000 to 100,000	Under 1%
100,000 to 10,000,000	Under 1%

Fault motion and ground failure

How the rock slipped, from the moment tensor, and the USGS estimate of landslides and liquefaction.

Faulting: Strike-slip
Moment magnitude: 4.2 Mwr
Nodal plane 1: Strike 211°, dip 85°, rake -174°
Nodal plane 2: Strike 121°, dip 84°, rake -5°

How well it is located

Reviewed by a seismologist.

Location uncertainty: About 2.4 km horizontally, 8.6 km in depth
Magnitude uncertainty: ±0.04
Station coverage gap: 104°
Stations used: 0

Nearest places

Distance and direction from each place to the epicenter, with its forecast.

Nearby

Within 100 km, magnitude 1.5 and up: 158 in the 60 days after this one and 68 in the 30 days before it.

After

The first 60 of 158.

Before

Earthquakes today Oklahoma earthquakes Live radar here

Sources

From the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program and its partner networks, event us2000dc7w. Read Sat, Oct 3, 2026, 12:18 AM UTC.