International Business Times Originally Posted: March 22, 2018 large number of areas in Texas that have experienced oil production activities over a prolonged period of time are now becoming more and more destabilized. The land in these areas is “sinking and uplifting” at an alarming rate, according to a team of geophysicists from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. Researchers discovered numerous areas spread across four Texas counties are experiencing an increasing amount of land destabilization. Satellite radar images obtained by the European Space Agency (ESA) revealed significant ground movement across a 4,000-square-mile area. According to the researchers, in one particular area, the ground had moved by as much as 40 inches in just two-and-a-half years. “The ground movement we’re seeing is not normal. The [...]

SMU Research Originally Posted: March 20, 2018 Analysis indicates decades of oil production activity have destabilized localities in an area of about 4,000 square miles populated by small towns, roadways and a vast network of oil and gas pipelines and storage tanks Two giant sinkholes near Wink, Texas, may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to a new study that found alarming rates of new ground movement extending far beyond the infamous sinkholes. That’s the finding of a geophysical team from Southern Methodist University, Dallas that previously reported the rapid rate at which the sinkholes are expanding and new ones forming. Now the team has discovered that various locations in large portions of four Texas counties are also sinking and uplifting. Radar satellite images [...]