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Oklahomans more accustomed to tornadoes than earthquakes suffered through a weekend of temblors that cracked buildings, buckled a highway and rattled nerves. One quake late on Saturday was the state's strongest ever and jolted a college football stadium 80 kilometers away and was followed early on Sunday by a jarring aftershock.

There were no reports in the hours after the quakes of any severe injuries or severe damage.

"That shook up the place, had a lot of people nervous," Oklahoma State wide receiver JustinBlackmon said of the late Saturday quake, the strongest of a series of quakes. "Yeah, it was pretty strong."

The magnitude 5.6 earthquake on Saturday night was centered near Sparks, 70 km northeast of Oklahoma City, and could be felt throughout the state and in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, northern Texas and some parts of Illinois and Wisconsin, said geophysicist Jessica Turner at the US Geological Survey. A magnitude 4.7 quake early on Saturday was felt from Texas to Missouri.

Turner said that the subsequent magnitude 4.0 quake that struck at 3:39 am on Sunday wasan aftershock centered some 58 km east of Oklahoma City in the same region. Like Saturday night's quake, she said it was another shallow quake occurring about 5 km underground, but experts had no immediate explanation for the spurt in seismic activity.

An emergency manager in Lincoln County near the epicenter said US 62, a two-lane highway that meanders through rolling landscape between Oklahoma City and the Arkansas state line, crumbled in places when the stronger quake struck on Saturday night. Other reports on Sunday were sketchy and mentioned cracks in some buildings and a chimney toppled.

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.