A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck a remote area outside the West Texas city of Midland Friday afternoon.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred about 5:35 p.m. and was centered about 13 miles northwest of Midland at a depth of about 5.6 miles underground. The USGS initially reported it as a 5.3 but later upgraded it to 5.4.
There have been no immediate reports of injuries or significant damage. KWES-TV in Midland showed images of cracked tiles and walls.
"I thought it was the wind until I realized the wind wouldn’t be making the light fixtures sway. Midland will get tremors that are rarely even felt but that was a full blown earthquake," one person wrote on Twitter. Other people reported feeling the tremors as far as New Mexico and San Angelo.
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The intensity of the quake was rated as MMI VII, indicating very strong shaking that could be felt by everyone, including those sleeping, and chimneys could be damaged by the movement.
The National Weather Service's Midland office says it would be the fourth strongest earthquake to ever hit Texas. A 3.6-magnitude aftershock was recorded three minutes after the earthquake.
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Geophysicist Jana Pursley at the USGS’s National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado said that according to early reports received by the agency, the quake was felt by more than 1,500 people over a large distance from Amarillo and Abilene in Texas to as far west as Carlsbad, New Mexico.
“It’s a sizable earthquake for that region,” Pursley said, adding, “In that region such an event will be felt for a couple of hundred miles.”
“I haven’t received any information about damages but it can crack stucco or driveways close to epicenter,” she added.
Friday's quake comes one month after a 5.4 magnitude earthquake struck near the Loving County community of Pecos, about 90 miles to the west of Midland. The quake caused damage in cities as far away as San Antonio and triggered multiple aftershocks.
Earthquakes in the south-central United States have been linked to oil and gas production, particularly the underground injection of wastewater. The U.S. Geological Survey said research suggests that a 5.0 magnitude quake that struck the West Texas area in 2020 was the result of a large increase of wastewater injection in the region.
