Increase in Earthquakes

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Zander Shaw

Many of the recent earthquakes happened around 13th and Central.

Zander Shaw, BTV News Director

They’re not that common, but Wichita does get it fair share of earthquakes. According to Dr. Rick Miller, a Geophysicist in charge of the Kansas geological survey seismic network.

Business teacher Ms. Most suffered some minor damage during one of the recent earthquakes. (Valerie Most)ork there have been 20 earthquakes reported since thanksgiving.

Most of the quakes were located in the northeast part of town between the intersections of 13th and Greenwich and 13th and Central. The largest reported was a 3.9 magnitude quake early in the morning on Dec. 30.

“It is not uncommon to have a large number of smaller events both before and after a main shock. Foreshocks and aftershocks are part of the process for both natural and induced earthquakes,” Miller said.

Dr. Miller also told us “It is likely there will be more in the M2 and maybe M3, but less likely there will be any much bigger. It is not clear how soon this recent activity will come to a close, but if it is consistent with other clusters in Kansas we have studied, this period of seismicity should end soon.”

It’s not yet known what caused these quakes, but they do seem to have subsided recently.