NOBLE COUNTY, Ohio (WKRC) – Fracking operations at a site in Ohio were halted in connection to recent earthquakes.

According to WFMJ, hydraulic fracturing operations at a well pad in Noble County, Ohio were halted due to recent seismic activity in the region.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) spokesperson Karina Cheung confirmed to WFMJ Wednesday that the earthquakes were directly connected to gas and oil operations, namely hydraulic fracturing operations by Energy Acquisition Partners (EAP).

“There has been some recent earthquake activity in Noble County due to oil and gas operations, specifically hydraulic fracturing operations by Energy Acquisition Partners (EAP) operating as Encino Energy. Hydraulic fracturing operations have been halted on the well pad,” Cheung told reporters with WFMJ.

Cheung told the station that some of the quakes in Noble County were strong enough to be felt.

The Ohio Seismic Network is responsible for monitoring earthquake activity across the state. The organization has recorded multiple small quakes in Noble County near Pleasant City, Ohio in the past few weeks, including the following:

• April 29: 2.8 magnitude earthquake detected approximately 2 miles southeast of Pleasant City at 10:09:14 p.m. EDT. (33 felt reports recorded)

• May 2: 2.4 magnitude earthquake detected around 2 miles southeast of Pleasant City at 6:43:30 a.m. EDT. (12 felt reports recorded)

• May 6: 2.3 magnitude earthquake detected approximately 2 miles southeast of Pleasant City at 4:00:45 p.m. EDT. (One felt report recorded)

• May 8: 3.2 magnitude earthquake detected about 2.5 miles southeast of Pleasant City at 11:13:43 p.m. EDT. (33 felt reports recorded)

According to WFMJ, ODNR officials did not say how long the suspension of operations would last.

The station noted that there have been several instances where seismic activity has been linked to oil and gas operations in Ohio, including the following:

• A 2011 quake that was centered on Division Street in Youngstown, Ohio was linked to a brine injection well. The Northstar fluid injection well in Youngstown was closed after multiple earthquakes occurred.

• The State of Ohio shut down an injection well in Wethersfield Township in 2014 due to earthquake activity.

• A temporary moratorium on drill and fracturing was issued after multiple earthquakes occurred in Poland Township.

According to WFMJ, fracking was linked to seismic activity, including earthquakes, in a 2023 study examining data from Eastern Ohio.

Professor Michael Brudzinski, a professor of geology and environmental earth science at Miami University, concluded that earthquakes can be induced by both the injection of fluids during hydraulic fracturing and the subsequent extraction of oil and gas, per the station.

In recent years, Ohio State football fans have become increasingly frustrated with the high volume of noon kickoffs their beloved Buckeyes have been forced to play.

One Ohio legislator is hoping to remedy that.

Ohio Representative Tex Fischer has authored a bill that would prohibit Ohio State from playing marquee games before 3:30 p.m. ET. A notable exception would be for the Buckeyes’ annual rivalry game against Michigan, which traditionally kicks off at noon.

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Since Fox, one of the Big Ten’s television partners, introduced its “Big Noon Saturday” window ahead of the 2019 season, Ohio State has become a fixture of the earliest broadcast time of the day. The Buckeyes have played 35 noon games since the start of the 2019 season, including seven last year on their way to their first national championship in a decade. Each of Ohio State’s final six regular-season games began at noon, three of which came at home.

The bill, as written, would prevent any game from being played in the state of Ohio if it meets both of the following criteria:

1. One of the competing teams is a football team from a state university
2. Both teams are ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll of the FBS

Of note, only one of the Buckeyes’ 2024 games would have fallen under that criteria: The Nov. 23 meeting with Indiana, a game in which the Buckeyes and Hoosiers were ranked No. 2 and No. 5 in the AP Top 25, respectively. Ohio State played only one other top-10 team in the noon slot against No. 3 Penn State, though that was on the road.

If the bill becomes law, the ramifications for skirting it would be steep. The legislation states that if a game starts before 3:30 p.m., the Ohio attorney general will impose a fine of $10 million against either the host team’s conference (the Big Ten) or the television network, whichever one scheduled the earlier kickoff.

While noon kickoffs offer fans, particularly those watching from home, time to take in other college football games from across the country later in the day, they’re generally an annoyance for fans attending the game in person, forcing them to wake up earlier in the morning and giving them less time to tailgate.

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When Fox debuted “Big Noon Saturday,” it was a way for the network to air a marquee matchup during what’s typically a barer early slate rather than having to compete against the SEC’s longstanding 3:30 p.m. game on CBS or ESPN’s primetime game (CBS now primarily airs a Big Ten game during the 3:30 p.m. slot as part of a new media rights deal with the conference). Fox adds some pageantry to its noon kickoff by bringing the network’s pregame show, “Big Noon Kickoff,” to the site of the game, much in the same way ESPN does with “College GameDay.”

Unfortunately for Ohio State, the Big Ten’s most consistently successful program since “Big Noon Saturday” launched six years ago, that interest in putting the Buckeyes in marquee time slots for Fox often means receiving a disproportionate share of early start times.

The bill hasn’t yet appeared on the Ohio legislature database, but text of it was published Thursday by journalist D.J. Byrnes of The Rooster.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — How do you compare a 5-foot-8 player from the leather helmet era who inspired the building of Ohio Stadium to a modern quarterback with eye-popping statistics and NFL success?

This impossible question sits at the heart of the latest Buckeye Talk podcast as hosts Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik, and Andrew Gillis tackle their bracket to determine the greatest Ohio State player of all time.

The hosts find themselves constantly wrestling with factors that make cross-era comparisons nearly impossible: physical evolution, rule changes, positional value, and even the role of coaching versus playing contributions.

No matchup better illustrates this challenge than their debate over Chic Harley versus Justin Fields, where a player from 1916-1919 goes head-to-head with one of the most statistically impressive quarterbacks in recent memory.

“I understand it’s a different era and this was why it was so hard,” Gillis explains, “Because Chic Harley, 1916, 17 and and 19, he was a consensus All-American. Justin Fields was the second team All-American in 2019. The game literally was a hundred years apart. So it was one of those things where it’s like, ‘Oh, man. How do you do that?”

The physical differences alone make the comparison startling. As Gillis points out: “If you’re 5′8, 165 pounds and you say, ‘Hey, Ryan Day, I would like to play football at Ohio State,’ he’s gonna laugh at you and say, ‘Well, we have a position open as a team manager because you’re not gonna play football here.’ It’s just not gonna happen. And Chic Harley is one of the greatest Buckeyes of all time.”

The podcast also grapples with how to weigh different positions against each other. When discussing Orlando Pace versus Chris Olave, Gillis explains his voting rationale: “I think being the best ever at your position mattered to me. I don’t know how much of a debate we’re having for best tackle ever at Ohio State, frankly. Best offensive lineman ever at Ohio State. So to me, that mattered.”

The hosts face additional complexity when considering coaching contributions versus playing careers. As Krajisnik notes: “I think part of the reason we decided not to is because Woody Hayes had however many years it was like to build his greatest Buckeye resume. Whereas, Archie Griffin had four years to build greatest Buckeye resume. That’s kind of why. So that’s why I struggle with it.”

This fundamental challenge of comparing across eras isn’t unique to Ohio State football, but it’s particularly acute for a program with such a rich history dating back to the early 1900s. How much weight should be given to historical significance? Does a player who inspired the building of Ohio Stadium automatically rank higher than someone with better statistics but less program-defining impact?

As the hosts whittle their bracket from 32 players to the next round, these comparisons only become more challenging – and more revealing about what truly makes a Buckeye great.

Curious to hear how the hosts navigate these impossible comparisons? Listen to the full Buckeye Talk episode to discover which legends are advancing in their bracket and the passionate cases being made for players spanning over a century of Ohio State football.

Here’s the podcast for this week:

Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Buckeye Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.