U.S. authorities report that Friday’s magnitude 5.4 earthquake in a Texas oil-producing region shook buildings but did not appear to do any damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake occurred at 5:35 pm local time (23:35 GMT) around 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) beneath the surface, 22 kilometres (12 mi) northwest of Midland.
Three minutes after the initial quake, the USGS reported a significantly weaker tremor of magnitude 3.3. The Midland branch of the National Weather Service tweeted, “This might be the 4th greatest earthquake in Texas state history!”
An earthquake of moderate magnitude was felt throughout a wide region, from Lubbock in the Texas Panhandle to Odessa 20 miles southwest of Midland, according to tweets from meteorologist Jacob Riley of television station KLBK in Lubbock.
The Pecos region of west Texas, just south of the New Mexico border, was rocked by a somewhat weaker earthquake a month before to Friday’s tremor. There was no damage from it.