Experts share the science behind massive earthquake in Texas Panhandle

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- We don't often think of earthquakes here in Texas, but the U.S. Geological Survey reports a 5.0 magnitude quake hit last week in the Texas Panhandle.

The earthquake happened at about 5:20 a.m. on Thursday near the Texas-Oklahoma border.

SEE ALSO: Texas Panhandle shaken by strongest earthquake to hit the region

No injuries or major damage were reported.

"The cabinets in my kitchen were rattling. My experience wasn't anything significant, but I was kind of confused," Suzanne Bellsnyder explained.

She lives near the earthquake epicenter and serves as the editor of the Hansford County Reporter-Statesman.

"I asked my dad, who has lived here his whole life, and he said he remembers one a long time ago, but in my lifetime, not a thing," she explained.

"For Texas as a whole, earthquakes are more common than they were a decade ago," Rice University seismologist Brandon Schmandt explained. "There's certainly a wait-and-see element to this. We haven't seen magnitude five earthquakes in the Texas Panhandle. So, we see one, and it is the start of something changing? Or is it just the rare event that we haven't seen for decades coming back again? That isn't immediately possible to say."

Schmandt said it's difficult to pinpoint the cause or future of seismic activity in our state.

"Earth has time for some pretty long stories, so sometimes you wait a long time between earthquakes to figure out what the system is that's causing them, and there have been earthquakes here before. There's also a presence of oil and gas production, so drilling deep wells and extracting and injecting and that can interact with faults, too," he said.