Oklahoma earthquake activity increases by nearly 4,000 percent

Earthquake Swarm Continues in Central Oklahoma

'Since January 2009, more than 200 magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes have rattled Central Oklahoma, marking a significant rise in the frequency of these seismic events.

The U.S. Geological Survey and Oklahoma Geological Survey are conducting collaborative research quantifying the changes in earthquake rate in the Oklahoma City region, assessing the implications of this swarm for large-earthquake hazard, and evaluating possible links between these earthquakes and wastewater disposal related to oil and gas production activities in the region.

Studies show one to three magnitude 3.0 earthquakes or larger occurred yearly from 1975 to 2008, while the average grew to around 40 earthquakes per year from 2009 to mid-2013.

"We've statistically analyzed the recent earthquake rate changes and found that they do not seem to be due to typical, random fluctuations in natural seismicity rates," said Bill Leith, USGS seismologist. "These results suggest that significant changes in both the background rate of events and earthquake triggering properties needed to have occurred in order to explain the increases in seismicity. This is in contrast to what is typically observed when modeling natural earthquake swarms."

The analysis suggests that a contributing factor to the increase in earthquakes triggers may be from activities such as wastewater disposal--a phenomenon known as injection-induced seismicity....'

[link to www.usgs.gov]

I'm sitting in that hot zone right now on the east side of oklahoma county. They are usually small and sound like a garbage truck or somebodies mudder running open headers.

They're so common now you cant really tell which one it is unless it's late at night or actually shakes or settles the house.

We have just started calling them growlers.

The analysis suggests that a contributing factor to the increase in earthquakes triggers may be from activities such as wastewater disposal--a phenomenon known as injection-induced seismicity....'


So now they are admitting it is caused by "Fracking"?

That was my take on it. Typical talk from "authorities" to confuse/misdirect those that lack critical thinking skills. That way people say, "it wasn't fracking that caused this, it was waste water disposal!" without ever putting any real thought into what they said.

'Induced hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracturing, commonly known as fracking, is a technique in which typically water is mixed with sand and chemicals, and the mixture is injected at high pressure into a wellbore to create small fractures....'

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Couldn't "water, sand & chemicals" also be concidered wastewater?

Also, last I knew we don't "inject" the water released from treatment plants, under pressure, into the ground. It's typically released into a local water way.

Injection-Induced Earthquakes

'Human-induced earthquakes have become an important topic of political and scientific discussion, owing to the concern that these events may be responsible for widespread damage and an overall increase in seismicity....

....Microearthquakes (that is, those with magnitudes below 2) are routinely produced as part of the hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) process used to stimulate the production of oil, but the process as currently practiced appears to pose a low risk of inducing destructive earthquakes. More than 100,000 wells have been subjected to fracking in recent years, and the largest induced earthquake was magnitude 3.6, which is too small to pose a serious risk. Yet, wastewater disposal by injection into deep wells poses a higher risk, because this practice can induce larger earthquakes. For example, several of the largest earthquakes in the U.S. midcontinent in 2011 and 2012 may have been triggered by nearby disposal wells....'

[link to www.sciencemag.org]

It's fracking. Everyone knows it's fracking and they have admitted it locally. They just publicly marginalized the effects it's having as minor. It releases so much natural gas it's making people fortunes.