Earthquake Caused by Wastewater Disposal

The 5.1 magnitude Oklahoma earthquake was most likely triggered by the underground disposal of wastewater from oil and natural gas production . 

The earthquake that struck northwest of Fairview in February was likely induced by distant disposal wells, said the U.S. Geological Survey.

The USGS report indicated that in the area around where the Fairview quake occurred, the volume of fluid injected had increased sevenfold over three years.

A study by the U.S. Geological Survey last year suggested that the sharp rise in earthquakes in Oklahoma in the past 100 years had likely been the result of industrial activities in the energy-rich state, such as oil and natural gas production. 

”The fact that seismicity is rather limited near the high-rate wells while the Fairview sequence occurred at a relatively larger distance from these wells, shows us the critical role preexisting, though possibly unknown, fault structures play in inducing large events,” said Dr. William Yeck, a USGS scientist and lead author of the study. “The rapid deployment of seismic stations by the USGS allowed us to precisely locate the aftershock sequence. High-quality data sets such as these are critical when trying to understand the shaking produced by these events and therefore are an important basis for earthquake hazard modeling.”

In response to research suggesting a wastewater disposal-earthquake link, state regulators have ordered the shutdown of some disposal wells and asked producers to reduce disposal volumes in earthquake-prone regions of the state. 

Source: phys.org