Moderate earthquake hits U.S. oil region in west Texas

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck an oil-producing region of west Texas on Friday, rattling structures but causing no apparent damage, U.S. authorities said.

The earthquake hit at 5:35 pm local time (2335 GMT) 22 kilometres (12 miles) northwest of Midland at a depth of about eight kilometres, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

A much smaller tremor of magnitude 3.3 followed three minutes after the first shake, the USGS said.

“This would be the 4th strongest earthquake in Texas state history!” the Midland office of the National Weather Service tweeted.

While moderate, the earthquake was felt over a large area, from as far north as Lubbock, near the Texas Panhandle, to Odessa, 20 miles southwest of Midland, tweeted Jacob Riley, meteorologist at television station KLBK in Lubbock.

Friday’s quake came exactly a month after another, slightly less strong, earthquake hit the Pecos area of west Texas, just south of the New Mexico border. It caused no damage.