Magnitude 5.0 quake causes damage in central Oklahoma

A person points to a seismograph.
(Image credit: Dimas Ardian/Getty Images)

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck central Oklahoma on Sunday night, registering as the fourth-strongest temblor to hit the state.

Police in Cushing say no injuries have been reported, but there has been "significant damage" to buildings, NewsOK reports. Cushing has a population of 7,900, and is home to the largest commercial oil storage hub in the United States. The strongest earthquake to shake the state was a 5.8 in Pawnee on Sept. 3, and scientists link an increase in quakes in Oklahoma to fracking, the process of drilling into the earth and injecting fluid at a high pressure to release the gas inside.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.