Earthquakes shake Texas town on Thanksgiving, and fracking might be to blame

[marmar]

from Grist:



Residents of a rural northern Texas area were awoken early on Thanksgiving by not one but two earthquakes. Such quakes have become alarmingly normal during the past month, and fracking practices could be to blame.

From CBS Dallas / Fort Worth:

North Texas has been feeling a string of earthquakes — more than a dozen — over the past few weeks. Most have been centered around Azle, with the most recent [previous] one being on Tuesday morning. All of those quakes have registered between 2.0 and 3.6 in magnitude. Those who live in the small town have grown concerned.

Azle leaders have called on state officials to have geologists investigate the cause of these quakes. “The citizens are concerned,” said Azle Assistant City Manager Lawrence Bryant at a city council meeting. “They should be.”

“If it’s a man-made cause, it would be nice to know,” Bryant added.

By “man-made,” Bryant means fracking-industry-made. Frackers pump their polluted wastewater deep into the ground, a practice well known as a cause of temblors. A wastewater injection well was shut down near Youngstown, Ohio, in late 2011 after it triggered more than 100 earthquakes of growing intensity in just a year. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/news/earthquakes-shake-texas-town-on-thanksgiving-and-fracking-might-be-to-blame/

[immoderate]

1. How nice that we leave reservoirs of waste water for future generations to discover.

--imm

[Ilsa]

2. 19 earthquakes in N Tx this month.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Two-More-Earthquakes-Rattle-North-Texas-233742491.html

[MagickMuffin]

3. I Live In Tarrant County

We have so f'ing many fracking wells in our county, that in my neighborhood the streets are starting to show signs of uneven lanes. Granted my neighborhood is rather an old one, however, in my community there are several wells that have been located within several miles. NOT GOOD at ALL!



From the report: Map of oil and gas wells (red dots) and salt water disposal wells (green boxes) in Tarrant and surrounding counties in Texas.

ETA: link to where I found the map ……… http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2012/06/more-earthquake-news-panel-says-blame-waste-injection-wells-not-fracking.html/

[xfundy]

4. No, nothing to see here.

Somebody pissed off BabyJesus™. Probably by getting ready to go to the wrong church in the morning. Or, perhaps, by masturbating. Too late now.

[Berlum]

5. Fracking is to blame

it's an ongoing insult to the land

[Uben]

6. I worked in Azle for about 8 years and we experienced shakes....

.....but they weren't from earthquakes. The Fort Worth PD bomb disposal unit had their detonation pit next door to us. This is a hole where they take old or unused ordinance, cover it with sand and blow it up. They would come warn us when they were going to set some off because we were running very accurate machinery.