Andrea Germanos\u00a0<\/strong> Fracking-related injection wells are likely behind the “remarkable” increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey have said.<\/p>\n The USGS and the Oklahoma Geological Survey on Friday issued a joint\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0warning that the surging seismicity \u2013 up roughly 50 percent since October 2013 \u2013 means that central Oklahoma is at a significantly increased risk of a 5.5 or greater quake.<\/p>\n Since just the start of this year, 145 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater have struck the state, breaking the record 109 set last year.<\/p>\n Those numbers are a far cry from the two 3.0 magnitude or larger earthquakes per year that occurred between 1978 and 2008.<\/p>\n The USGS stated that the changes “do not seem to be due to typical, random fluctuations in natural seismicity rates.”<\/p>\n Rather, the USGS analysis points to wastewater injection wells from the oil and gas industry as a likely culprit. Fracking operations use these Class 2 wells to inject the mystery mix of waste fluids into the earth. A 2010 EPA analysis\u00a0showed<\/a>\u00a0that Oklahoma had over 10,000 such wells.<\/p>\n A recent study by the USGS also\u00a0points to<\/a>\u00a0wastewater injection as the likely cause of the November 2011 5.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Prague, Oklahoma, and proceeded to cause a series of “thousands of aftershocks.”<\/p>\n
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