Associated Press and KERA News
Originally Posted: April 21, 2015
SMU Study Links Azle Earthquake Swarm To Natural Gas Drilling
What’s causing the Azle earthquakes? SMU researchers say that wastewater injection and saltwater extraction from natural gas wells is the most likely cause.
A study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications says researchers from Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey monitored the shaking from nearly 30 small quakes west of Fort Worth from November 2013 to January 2014. The area hadn’t had any recorded quakes in 150 years.
The scientists say the shaking decreased when the volume of injections did. They have concluded that removing saltwater from the wells and injecting that wastewater back underground is “the most likely cause” for the swarm of quakes.
Other studies have made a connection between wastewater injections and a spike in earthquakes in Oklahoma and southern Kansas.
The state’s official seismologist has no plans for immediate action following the report. Craig Pearson said at a news conference Tuesday that he wouldn’t recommend that the Railroad Commission, the state’s oil and gas regulator, suspend activity at two wells the report’s authors identify as the source of the temblors in Azle. READ MORE