Study links drilling to earthquakes

Oil and gas drilling is responsible for small earthquakes at more than a dozen sites around the United States, the United States Geological Survey reported Thursday.

In a new study, the agency looked at a 17 areas within eight states that have seen increased seismic activity over the last few years. The report and its authors conclude that small earthquakes in those areas have been induced by oil and gas drilling operations.

{mosads}“The hazard is high in these areas,” Mark Petersen, the head of the agency’s mapping project, told The Associated Press on Thursday. 

The report comes days after Oklahoma officials said that recent seismic activity there is likely caused by wastewater disposal associated with oil and gas drilling. Oklahoma sites were among those included in the report.

The report hedged on how to use drilling sites as a way to predict future earthquakes because, “seismicity does not occur near every disposal well, so it is important that we continue to study and learn more about these earthquakes are generated.”

On a whole, the Geological Survey acknowledged that, “although the disposal process has the potential to trigger earthquakes, most wastewater disposal wells do not produce felt earthquakes.”

The report says hydraulic fracturing is “only occasionally the direct cause of felt earthquakes.”