November 7, 2016 Earthquake: Cushing, Oklahoma, United States

One person injured, at least 40 buildings severely damaged and power outages occurred at Cushing. Felt (VI) at Cushing and Mounds; (V) at Drumright, Piedmont, Stroud and Wellston. Felt (IV) at Arkansas City, Belle Plaine, Caney, Emporia, Goddard, Haysville and Wichita, Kansas; at Canehill, Gravette, Lincoln and Winslow, Arkansas; at Cassville, Kansas City and Pineville, Missouri; at Dallas, Texas. Felt in much of Oklahoma. Also felt in many parts of eastern Kansas, western Missouri, northwestern Arkansas and north-central Texas. Felt in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska. Cushing, OK, US - CDI: 6; Ripley, OK, US - CDI: 6; Mounds, OK, US - CDI: 6; Stroud, OK, US - CDI: 6; Carney, OK, US - CDI: 5

Most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains has infrequent earthquakes.

Most earthquakes in North America east of the Rockies occur as faulting within bedrock, usually miles deep. Few earthquakes east of the Rockies, however, have been definitely linked to mapped geologic faults, in contrast to the situation at plate boundaries such as California's San Andreas fault system… Scientists who study eastern and central North America earthquakes often work from the hypothesis that modern earthquakes occur as the result of slip on preexisting faults that were formed in earlier geologic eras and that have been reactivated under the current stress conditions. The bedrock of Eastern North America is, however, laced with faults that were active in earlier geologic eras, and few of these faults are known to have been active in the current geologic era.

As is the case elsewhere in the world, there is evidence that some central and eastern North America earthquakes have been triggered or caused by human activities that have altered the stress conditions in earth's crust sufficiently to induce faulting. Activities that have induced felt earthquakes in some geologic environments have included impoundment of water behind dams, injection of fluid into the earth's crust, extraction of fluid or gas, and removal of rock in mining or quarrying operations. In much of eastern and central North America, the number of earthquakes suspected of having been induced is much smaller than the number of natural earthquakes, but in some regions, such as the south-central states of the U.S., a significant majority of recent earthquakes are thought by many seismologists to have been human-induced. Even within areas with many human-induced earthquakes, however, the activity that seems to induce seismicity at one location may be taking place at many other locations without inducing felt earthquakes. In addition, regions with frequent induced earthquakes may also be subject to damaging earthquakes that would have occurred independently of human activity. Making a strong scientific case for a causative link between a particular human activity and a particular sequence of earthquakes typically involves special studies devoted specifically to the question. Such investigations usually address the process by which the suspected triggering activity might have significantly altered stresses in the bedrock at the earthquake source, and they commonly address the ways in which the characteristics of the suspected human-triggered earthquakes differ from the characteristics of natural earthquakes in the region.

(above from ref #13456)

Dozens of buildings sustained "substantial damage" after a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck an Oklahoma town that's home to one of the world's key oil hubs... 40 to 50 buildings were damaged in Sunday's earthquake... No major injuries have been reported... the damage included cracks to buildings and fallen bricks and facades... (ref #11630) a few minor injuries were reported... (ref #11631)

20,000,000 USD in damages (ref#1250)