I’m guessing everyone felt this morning’s earthquake since, unlike the previous ones that have hit Kuwait before, this one was fairly strong.
An earthquake of magnitude 5 struck Kuwait, the ministry of information tweeted on Saturday.
The ministry said “the Kuwait National Seismic Network recorded an earthquake measuring 5 … southwest of al-Ahmadi, and it occurred at exactly 04:28:02 a.m. Kuwait time (0128 GMT), at a depth of 5 km (3 miles)”.
The Kuwait’s Fire Force also said that there was no damage as a result of the earthquake. Source
According to some sources online, the earthquake measured a magnitude of 4.4 but according to the Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR) it was actually a 5.
21 replies on “Earthquake!”
I was sleeping, so I didn’t notice anything.
Yeah I’m usually asleep but this one actually woke me up cuz things in my apartment were moving and making sounds
I always miss these earth-shattering events. I am pretty sure I was actually half-awake at this time.
Is this the first time we’re having a strong one with the epicenter inside Kuwait? Scary stuff
I think so, I checked all my previous earthquake posts and they were all based around the region, this was only one I found that had an epicenter in kuwait.
Interestingly, the epicenter happens to be right here based on coordinates from USGS.gov. If you view this in satellite imagery, it looks like place with high oil-related activities.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/28%C2%B052'58.8%22N+47%C2%B056'49.2%22E/@28.8873182,47.9461659,6809m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x4b36907d28efe39f!8m2!3d28.883!4d47.947
And there’s also studies done on this:
https://www.science.org/content/article/oil-and-gas-operations-could-trigger-large-earthquakes
Not sure if it’s just a coincidence and this was a natural earthquake.
Hold on while I get my tin foil hat
Hahah
Turned out to be true. It is related to the oil fields. Specifically Hydraulic Fracturing (aka Fracking)
Source?
Would love to know the same, since hydraulic fracturing is _not_ regularly performed in this area of Kuwait!
Interesting point! I guess time will tell whether it was just another “natural” event or not… XD
Interesting point! I guess time will tell whether it was just another “natural” event or not… XD
Check out, Ipsom’s comment below.
This one was actually really strong. I couldn’t believe that it’d be 4.4 but considering it’s depth was mentioned as 10KM it could be that. And plus epicenter is mentioned as Ahmadi and I reside in mangaf so makes sense to say it felt very strong.
Felt multiple quakes here before but this has to be the strongest one so far.
It woke all of us up at home. I was expecting aftershocks considering the depth and now the magnitude being 5. But thank God.
This is really something interesting and worrying if Kuwait has started becoming the epicenter of the quakes now as there was another one i assume last year or two ago (although quite weaker) that too said to have Kuwait as it’s epicenter.
I was fast asleep but did wake up 15 minutes later which is my usual wake up time only to discover that my neighbor going for a walk at that time asked me if I felt the earthquake! 😀
I woke up to piss. But didn’t feel it.
Felt some shakes in Abu hasaniya. Was watching Netflix when my body started to shake and thought I was having some kind of seizure until I realized my drink was shaking too haha. Weird experience
Defo related to oil operations.
I remember talking to a petroleum engineer friend, something about how depleting the well can cause it.
Usually only about 20% of a reservoir’s oil is removed. Trying to coax beyond that percentage is where there’s risk with these things happening. Ofc hard to tell what exactly was going on here, whether they were going deep or not. Also, I presume it takes years for faults to happen. It builds up and then suddenly let’s go.
+1
when kuwait has rainy nights. I am not aware as i sleep. Such a strong thing happend and i was not aware 😀
I woke up to my bed shaking and the head board banging against the wall. Thought I was in a scene of The Exorcist.