A preliminary magnitude 5.1 earthquake strikes east of Oklahoma City
(Getty images)
(CNN) — A preliminary magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit east of Oklahoma City on Friday night and was followed by at least two smaller temblors, according to the US Geological Survey.
The bigger earthquake was recorded at 11:24 p.m. local time about 5 miles northwest of Prague, Oklahoma, and about 42 miles from Oklahoma City, the geological survey said. The small city is home to about 2,000 people.
The shaking from that earthquake was felt across a large swath of the state, including in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, according to preliminary reports shared by USGS. Shaking was also felt as far as Wichita, Kansas, according to the geological survey.
Smaller quakes, magnitudes 2.6 and 3.5, were reported around the same area shortly after, according to USGS.
Information on whether there were impacts from the earthquakes wasn’t immediately available.
New research suggests that scientists may be able to predict earthquakes five days in advance, allowing time for evacuations and other safety measures to be implemented.
Earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains are usually felt over a much larger area than earthquakes of similar magnitude in the western US, according to the geological survey.
“East of the Rockies, an earthquake can be felt over an area more than ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast,” the geological survey wrote on its website.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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