Manmade Earthquake Report: Fracking Has Made Central U.S. As Unstable As California

Humans have the power to inflict massive change on the Earth, for good or ill. And a new government report has blamed human activity for causing more earthquakes than normal in eight U.S. states.

The manmade earthquakes have been caused by fracking, more specifically the fracking wastewater that the industry injects into deep wells, the Washington Post reported.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, this wastewater puts additional pressure on natural fault lines, driving them apart and causing quakes.

In a report released Monday, the USGS definitively linked the risk of manmade earthquakes to “companies that are injecting wastewater from gas and oil production down to porous rocks far below ground.”

“In the past five years, the USGS has documented high shaking and damage in areas of these six states, mostly from induced earthquakes,” said Mark Petersen, chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project. “Furthermore, the (agency)… has archived tens of thousands of reports from the public who experienced shaking in those states, including about 1,500 reports of strong shaking or damage.”

Manmade earthquakes are putting even more of the country at risk https://t.co/tbGKiOqPIP pic.twitter.com/0BtddSL0bY

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) March 29, 2016

The increased risk affects seven million people in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, and Alabama. A map accompanying the report highlights the manmade earthquake hotspots in the central U.S., which are now as unstable as California. The map stunned USGS geologist Susan Hough when she first saw it.

“My first thought was actually holy crap, Oklahoma is redder than California.”

The report stated that Oklahoma has the highest risk, while Texas has the largest population exposed to the potential of manmade tremors, CBS News reported.

The central region of the country overall has seen the greatest spike in manmade earthquakes in the past six years. For example, between 1973 and 2008, the region experienced 24 registered earthquakes as 3.0 or higher every year.

But between 2009 and 2015, the region started to average 318 every year. This rate peaked in 2015, with 1,010 earthquakes reported. As of March, the central U.S. has rumbled with 226 earthquakes registered as 3.0 or higher.

At least 21 spots that have seen spikes in seismic activity have been linked to wastewater injection, according to the USGS report and map. In Oklahoma, fracking, horizontal drilling, and its resulting wastewater injection have increased in the past 10 years. In January, Dallas and Irving, Texas, experienced a 3.6 earthquake along a fault line that runs between the cities; an injection well is located six miles away.

#USA now facing a new manmade threat as human-induced #earthquakes multiply due to #industry https://t.co/cmeiMwKbuD pic.twitter.com/N4YLewdRFk

— Lucile Mohs (@Lucile_Mohs) March 29, 2016

“The new map serves as a reminder to the local populations living with the recent earthquakes that it is best to be prepared to feel ground shaking,” said seismologist Heather R. DeShon.

And that manmade threat is a serious one in Texas. The Federal Emergency Management Agency compiled, but didn’t release, a report that predicted a worst-case, 5.6-magnitude quake in Dallas would damage 80,000 buildings, destroy levees, and cause $9.5 billion in economic losses.

This year’s report and map represent the first time the USGS has included manmade quakes in its hazard assessment. It’s based on recent activity and represents a one-year hazard assessment. Based on past activity, the agency believes the trend will continue.

So far, most of the manmade quakes have been pretty minor, around magnitude 3, but they’re becoming more powerful, like the 5.1-magnitude earthquake seen in Oklahoma in 2011 linked to wastewater injection.

The oil and gas industry uses fracking to “shatter subsurface shale rock and liberate the oil and gas lurking there.” This creates wastewater that is full of chemicals. Horizontal drilling also creates huge amounts of natural saltwater. The industry doesn’t want this liquid byproduct, so companies pump it into deep wells.

[Image via Lee Prince/Shutterstock]