{"id":63428,"date":"2026-03-06T15:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63428"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:50:13","slug":"on-thursday-march-5-2026-a-rare-and-significant-4-9-magnitude-earthquake-struck-northwestern-louisiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/06\/on-thursday-march-5-2026-a-rare-and-significant-4-9-magnitude-earthquake-struck-northwestern-louisiana\/","title":{"rendered":"On Thursday, March 5, 2026, a rare and significant 4.9 magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Louisiana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Thursday, March 5, 2026<\/strong>, a rare and significant 4.9 magnitude earthquake<\/strong> struck northwestern Louisiana.<\/sup> This event has been identified by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as the strongest inland earthquake<\/strong> ever recorded in the state’s history.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Event Details<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Time:<\/strong> 5:30 a.m. CST (Thursday, March 5).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Epicenter:<\/strong> Located approximately 6 miles west of Edgefield<\/strong> in Red River Parish, roughly 36 miles southeast of Shreveport.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Depth:<\/strong> Very shallow, at about 3.1 miles (5 km), which contributed to how widely it was felt.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Impact:<\/strong> Shaking was reported by over 1,100 people across northern Louisiana, eastern Texas, and southern Arkansas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n

    Key Takeaways<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Historical Significance:<\/strong> This quake broke the previous inland record of a 4.1 magnitude event near Donaldsonville in 1930. While a 5.3 offshore quake occurred in 2006, this 4.9 event is the most powerful to ever hit the Louisiana mainland.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Damage Reports:<\/strong> Despite being a record-breaker for the region, there have been no reports of major structural damage, injuries, or deaths<\/strong>. Residents primarily reported rattling windows, swinging light fixtures, and minor cosmetic issues like cracked drywall.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Possible Causes:<\/strong> Seismologists are investigating the cause, with some preliminary discussions looking into the regional fault systems or potential links to local industrial activity, though no definitive cause has been confirmed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Safety Reminder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      Since aftershocks are possible (though typically smaller), the USGS recommends the “Drop, Cover, and Hold On”<\/strong> protocol if shaking occurs again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      On Thursday, March 5, 2026, a rare and significant 4.9 magnitude earthquake struck northwestern Louisiana. This event has been identified by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as the strongest inland… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL1NjcmVlbnNob3QtMjAyNi0wMy0wNlQxNTQ1NDYuMjYzLndlYnA_Zml0PTQyOCUyQzMxNCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ik9uIFRodXJzZGF5LCBNYXJjaCA1LCAyMDI2LCBhIHJhcmUgYW5kIHNpZ25pZmljYW50IDQuOSBtYWduaXR1ZGUgZWFydGhxdWFrZSBzdHJ1Y2sgbm9ydGh3ZXN0ZXJuIExvdWlzaWFuYSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.9Lwwt9PzJBYWIrP0GLYDrYC7AIl74FOkMY4lWV5Bn9sMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[13094,13959,13958,13957],"class_list":["post-63428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-13094","tag-a-rare-and-significant-4-9-magnitude-earthquake-struck-northwestern-louisiana","tag-march-5","tag-on-thursday"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63431,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63428\/revisions\/63431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}