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Pastimes : All Things Weather and Mother Nature
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From: Don Green5/1/2022 5:32:08 PM
   of 942
 
Fracking Boom Turns Texas Into the Earthquake Capital of the U.S.
April 29, 2022


Years of fracking in the Permian Basin have lead to a sharp increase in the frequency and magnitude of earthquakes damaging homes. Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg

A state not known for earthquakes has been hit so hard, it's even poised to overtake California and Alaska.

By Sergio Chapa and David Wethe

Earthquakes were never anything people in West Texas thought much about. Years would pass in between tremors that anybody felt. Even after the shale revolution arrived in force a decade ago and oil crews started drilling franticallyin the region’s vast Permian Basin, there seemed to be no impact on the land.

But then, suddenly, in 2015, there were six earthquakes that topped 3.0 on the Richter scale. And then six again the next year. And then the numbers just exploded: 17 became 78 became 181. And in the first three months of 2022 alone, there were another 59, putting the year on pace to set a fresh record. Lower the threshold to include tiny tremors and the numbers run into the thousands.

All of which means that West Texas, the proud oil-drilling capital of America, is now also on the cusp of becoming the earthquake capital of America. Even California and Alaska, home to massive fault lines and a never-ending series of tremors, appear bound to be overtaken soon at the current pace of things.

Texas Tremblers Permian closing in on California and Alaska with its 3.0 earthquakes

bloomberg.com
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