Texas Earthquakes Linked to Fracking

A series of earthquakes in Texas’ Permian Basin that happened before 2017 began at shallower depths than previously thought, indicating they could have been caused by wastewater disposal related to fracking operations.

According to an article by Miriam Fauzia in Governing, “Leftover wastewater may be reused for further fracking or injected underground into saltwater disposal wells. If the injection is near a fault line — a vulnerable fracture between two blocks of rock — the stress can trigger an earthquake. A 2019 study investigating quakes in North Texas found that pressure changes from disposal wells made fault lines more likely to rupture.”

A new study used a mathematical tool called “hypocentroidal decomposition” to recalculate the depth of older earthquakes, revealing that many more of them correlate with water injection sites than previously believed. 

Fauzia points out that in addition to the ramifications for fracking, “the findings hold significance for environmental efforts like carbon capture and storage, a process where carbon dioxide emissions are trapped and stored underground,” which could be complicated by the presence of faults and risk of causing earthquakes.