Odessa has its own quake
Jul. 21—It turns out Odessa had its own earthquake Thursday morning and it was likely that quake folks felt downtown and not the 4.7 magnitude earthquake that struck in Whites City, New Mexico.
Mark Blount, a spokesman with the Bureau of Economic Geology in Austin, said preliminary information indicates a 1.5 magnitude earthquake was recorded at 8:44 a.m. north of town. The epicenter was located east of Loop 338 going up north toward US 385.
"As far as felt earthquakes, this was a relatively small quake," Blount said.
According to a study released in June by the University of Texas at Austin, researchers studied 5,000 earthquakes that took place from 2017 to 2020 in West Texas and New Mexico and found that 68% of earthquakes above 1.5 magnitude were "highly associated" with hydraulic fracturing or the disposal of produced formation water into either shallow or deep geologic formations.
The Eddy County, New Mexico, quake was recorded by the United State Geological Survey at 8:36 a.m. A 3.0 temblor was recorded almost exactly an hour later in the same location, which is roughly three hours away from Odessa.
Assistant City Manager Phillip Urrutia said he and his colleagues felt Odessa's quake at City Hall.
"It lasted longer than any other ones I've felt," Urrutia said, noting he's often felt them in the Parks Bell Ranch area.
