From: EcoWatch
By Joe Romm
Two new papers tie a recent increase in significant earthquakes to reinjection of wastewater fluids from unconventional oil and gas drilling. The
first study notes “significant earthquakes are increasingly occurring
within the United States midcontinent.” In the specific case of
Oklahoma, a Magnitude “5.7 earthquake and a prolific sequence of related
events … were likely triggered by fluid injection.”
The second study, of the Raton Basin of Southern Colorado/Northern
New Mexico by a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) team, concludes “the
majority, if not all of the earthquakes since August 2001 have been
triggered by the deep injection of wastewater related to the production
of natural gas from the coal-bed methane field here.”
Both studies are being presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union this week.
These studies, together with other recent findings, make a strong
case that we need national regulations on wastewater injection to
prevent induced earthquakes. MORE
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