Scientists Say Small Fracking Earthquakes Could Lead to Major Ones [1]

Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch [2]
Waking Times

Over the last several years clusters of earthquakes have been occurring in places that rarely saw significant earthquake activity, including Texas [3], Oklahoma [4] and Ohio [5]. Those earthquakes have been connected to the wastewater injection techniques used in fracking, which researchers say activate hidden fault lines. It’s referred to as “induced seismicity.”

While most of those earthquakes have been minor—in most cases too small to feel and most under magnitude 3 on the Richter Scale—they could be getting much larger according to scientist William Ellsworth of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

“The more small earthquakes we have it just simply increases the odds we’re going to have a more damaging event,” he said. “To some degree, we’ve dodged a bullet in Oklahoma.”