Oklahoma on record earthquake pace, up 90 percent from over a year ago

The ground is trembling underneath the feet of Oklahomans at a record pace this year and by a wide margin, but the jury remains out on whether recent mitigation measures on injection wells will curtail the troubling trend.

Through April 2015, the seismically active region centered in Oklahoma has notched 468 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater. That figure is a leap of nearly 90 percent more than the 248 temblors of that strength experienced in the first four months of 2014, which went on to become the state’s most seismically active year by far, with 997 quakes.

Matt Skinner, Oklahoma Corporation Commission spokesman, said the record rate of earthquakes is concerning but that it’s too soon to know if the recent mitigation measures have begun to work, need more time to yield positive results or will prove to be ineffective.
:sw_hmmnod:

There are 357 wells in the targeted area, of which 108 have been made shallower and another 19 have plans to plug back or already are in the process. There are 38 wells currently not injecting.

Data is being gathered and a model developed, but Moschetti noted the abundance of magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes create a higher risk for a much larger and more damaging one.

That potential is among the reasons critics have been decrying the state government for moving so slowly in trying to abate the quakes or even acknowledging a human correlation.

The Corporation Commission has its reasons for not acting sooner, Skinner said, but delving into a “right or wrong” debate now when the state isn’t “through this by any stretch of the imagination” is counterproductive.

[link to www.tulsaworld.com]