Have earthquakes occurred in Corpus Christi in historic times?
On 24 March an earthquake with magnitude 3.8 shook Alice, Texas, a community situated about 60 km west of Corpus Christi. This is the only known earthquake in this local area in historic times. Although the Corpus Christi Caller Times reported that this quake was felt in Corpus Christi, interviews by a team of UT students determined that this was erroneous; apparently reporters were confused by reports of people “near” Corpus (but actually in Alice) feeling the quake. A felt report study determined that the entire felt area of the earthquake was about 900 km2; the highest Mercalli intensities of about VI were from a sparsely populated region about 10-15 km ESE of Alice, Texas. This region lies along the Vicksburg fault zone that runs nearly parallel to the Fulf coast and is within a few kilometers of the currently producing Stratton oil field. Although this location suggests that the earthquake may have been triggered by hydrocarbon withdrawal, another likely possibility is that the qu
