CADDO PARISH, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A 3.0 magnitude earthquake struck in North Caddo Parish early Thursday morning just west of Blanchard.
According to the United State Geological Survey, the earthquake happened around 2:30 a.m. The epicenter reported by USGS indicates it hit 3.4 miles west of Blanchard at a depth of about 5 miles.
That would place the center of the quake just northwest of Walter B. Jacobs Memorial Nature Park.
No damage or injuries have been reported, but USGS has gathered more than 20 “Did You Feel It” (DYFI) reports of weak to light intensity from Mooringsport, Haughton, and Shreveport to as far as way as Longview and Palestine in East Texas.
“Earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains, although less frequent than in the West, are typically felt over a much broader region than earthquakes of similar magnitude in the west,” according to the USGS. “It would not be unusual for a magnitude 4.0 earthquake in eastern or central North America to be felt by a significant percentage of the population in many communities more than 100 km (60 mi) from its source.
USGS records show Thursday’s quake in North Caddo is the strongest recorded in the ArkLaTex since a 3.5 earthquake struck near Timpson, Texas in 2018. The USGS says there have been 13 earthquakes in the region since 2015 and five of them have registered at magnitude 2.5 or more – including three more in Timpson.
“As is the case elsewhere in the world, there is evidence that some central and eastern North America earthquakes have been triggered or caused by human activities that have altered the stress conditions in earth’s crust sufficiently to induce faulting,” the USGS says.
That includes activities such as the injection of fluid into the earth’s crust, extraction of fluid or gas, and removal of rock in mining or quarrying operations.
“In much of eastern and central North America, the number of earthquakes suspected of having been induced is much smaller than the number of natural earthquakes, but in some regions, such as the south-central states of the U.S., a significant majority of recent earthquakes are thought by many seismologists to have been human-induced.”