MVSKOKE RESERVATION, Oklv. – On Friday, Feb. 2 at 11:28 p.m. (CT) many residents across Oklahoma, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and surrounding states felt the effects of an earthquake with a 5.1 magnitude originating near the city of Prague in Lincoln County. Although the city is not within the Nation’s jurisdictional boundaries it is located just a few miles outside the west boundary. The depth of the earthquake was determined to be nearly two miles deep by an Oklahoma geological survey.
Friday night’s earthquake took place along the Arbuckle formation, the same one that experienced a similar 5.0 magnitude earthquake in 2011. The Arbuckle formation is the state’s deepest formation.
According to MCN Emergency Management Director Bobby Howard, there was no major damage sustained by the main tribal complex. Howard’s team did not respond to any areas within the reservation for relief efforts.
On Saturday Feb. 3 the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s Oil and Natural Gas Conservation Division issued a directive for a change in operations to some oil and gas wastewater disposal wells near Prague in response to the seismic activity. All wells that dispose into the Arbuckle formation and that are located within a 10 mile radius were ordered to complete shutdown operations by Feb. 17.
