A rare magnitude 5.0 earthquake rattled the Texas Panhandle early Thursday morning, with shaking felt across surrounding states, officials said.
The quake was fairly shallow, occurring at about 3.5 miles below the surface. As of Thursday morning, more than 400 people reported feeling the earthquake. Shaking was strongest near the epicenter, with weaker to moderate tremors felt across a wider area, extending down to Dallas, north into Kansas, and as far east as Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In nearby Pampa, another resident said the quake rattled her beds and caused her walls to pop. "Fireplace sounded like it was coming apart," she shared, adding that she didn't see any signs of physical damage.
"Woke me up out of bed in Amarillo," a third person penned. "Felt like the bed was vibrating."
Most earthquakes that hit the northern tip of Texas occur along the boundary between the Amarillo-Wichita Uplift and the Anadarko Basin, where underground faults extend across the area.
"It is also possible that many earthquakes in the Panhandle may not be naturally caused, but rather, they may be the result of petroleum production," the agency said. "In fact, some of the strongest earthquakes in the Panhandle have occurred very close to a large oil and gas field near Panhandle, TX."
The National Weather Service noted that the theory is highly debated, given earthquakes linked to oil activity do not exceed magnitudes of 5.0.
The agency estimates that 91 percent of recorded earthquakes that have occurred in the Texas Panhandle since 1907 have had magnitudes less than 5.0. Only three have reached that threshold or higher, the largest of which struck Carson County on July 30, 1925, with an estimated magnitude of 5.4.