The earthquake struck Texas near San Antonio, says USGS – Newsweek

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake has shook southern Texas near San Antonio, the USGS geological survey (USGS) reports.

The earthquake struck at 9.26 on Wednesday, at a depth of about 2.3 miles below its epicenter on the surface, which lay about 12 miles east-northeast of Falls City.

The main shock was followed a few hours later with a magnitude of 2.6 tremor 10.5 miles southeast of Stockdale.

According to the USGS website, the Falls City earthquake is probably the main shock of the earthquake, which began with four other smaller tremor (with quantities between 1.6-2.9) in the first few weeks of January.

The magnitude of the earthquakes is measured in a logarithmic scale. This means, for example, that the amplitude of seismic waves at a given distance from the epicenter is 10 times larger for magnitude 5 quake than they would be for magnitude 4.

About 500,000 magnitude earthquakes between 2.5 and 5.4 worldwide every year – tremors, which are often felt, but usually cause only minor damage.

The USGS website has registered 642 messages about people who feel the Falls City earthquake – the most in the immediate vicinity of the epicenter and east of San Antonio, but also as north as the area around the city of Kilin.

Texas’ reports who feel that the quake is also published in X.

User @remi_ur_angel, for example, asked, “I feel this earthquake?”

Earthquakes appear as a result of the constant-but for us, unnoticed slow movement of tectonic plates on the earth’s surface.

Most earthquakes appear near the boundary of these plates, the result of slow stress accumulation in the crust. When this tension overcomes the power of the rock to create damage or friction on the existing planes of the fault, the Earth slides – releasing waves of energy.

Being far from the boundaries of the North American plate, Texas is not a country where geologists would expect to see a lot of seismic activity from a tecton point of view.

Trembrers can occur in the center of the tectonic plates, the result is also from tectonic stresses and the development of areas of weakness in the crust.

However, seismologists are associated with an increase in Texas earthquakes with oil and gas operations, which can affect the tension of the underground surface.

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