4.5-magnitude quake shakes Oklahoma shortly after Trump rally wraps up in Tulsa

A 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck Oklahoma at a shallow depth of about 8km, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported. It came shortly after US President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa.

The USGS initially reported it as a 4.2-magnitude quake, but later upgraded it to 4.5.

The quake struck at 10:15pm local time (03:15 UTC) around 10km (6.2 miles) northwest of Perry (about 72 miles from Tulsa), which hosted the ‘Make America Great Again’ rally on Saturday evening.

Local media reported that tremors were felt in Tulsa as well. There have been no reports of damage or injuries from what is considered a minor quake, however.

Seismic events of this scale are not unheard of in Oklahoma, as it has seen a spike in earthquakes since 2009. There is an ongoing debate whether the increase in quakes has been primarily due to fracking.

While some say that the technique used to extract oil and gas from deep underground is the driving force behind the surge, others argue that it’s far from being the only cause.

The USGS says that only a small fraction of the quakes could be linked to the highly controversial process, stating that “the largest earthquake known to be induced by hydraulic fracturing in Oklahoma” in 2019 was just a 3.6-magnitude quake.

While Saturday evening’s quake did not likely faze Oklahomans, who experience similar events on a more or less regular basis, the US president’s detractors on Twitter seized the opportunity to suggest that it was mother nature’s response to the first MAGA rally in three months.

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