How large are the earthquakes induced by fluid injection?
The largest earthquake induced by fluid injection that has been documented in the scientific literature was a magnitude 5.8 earthquake on September 23, 2016 in central Oklahoma.
Four magnitude 5+ earthquakes have occurred in Oklahoma, three of which occurred in 2016. In 2011, a magnitude 5.3 earthquake was induced by fluid injection in the Raton Basin, Colorado. Earthquakes with magnitudes between 4.5 and 5.0 have also been induced by fluid injection in Arkansas and Kansas.
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Shaking from injection-induced earthquakes in the central and eastern United States
In this study I consider the ground motions generated by 11 moderate (Mw4.0-5.6) earthquakes in the central and eastern United States that are thought or suspected to be induced by fluid injection. Using spatially rich intensity data from the USGS “Did You Feel It?” system, I show that the distance decay of intensities for all events is consistent with that observed for tectonic...
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Oklahoma has had a surge of earthquakes since 2009. Are they due to fracking?
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Shaking from injection-induced earthquakes in the central and eastern United States
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Authors
Susan E. Hough
Potentially induced earthquakes in Oklahoma, USA: links between wastewater injection and the 2011 Mw 5.7 earthquake sequence
Significant earthquakes are increasingly occurring within the continental interior of the United States, including five of moment magnitude (Mw) ≥ 5.0 in 2011 alone. Concurrently, the volume of fluid injected into the subsurface related to the production of unconventional resources continues to rise. Here we identify the largest earthquake potentially related to injection, an Mw 5.7...
Authors
Katie M. Keranen, Heather M. Savage, Geoffrey A. Abers, Elizabeth S. Cochran
Passive seismic monitoring of natural and induced earthquakes: Case studies, future directions and socio-economic relevance
An important discovery in crustal mechanics has been that the Earth’s crust is commonly stressed close to failure, even in tectonically quiet areas. As a result, small natural or man-made perturbations to the local stress field may trigger earthquakes. To understand these processes, Passive Seismic Monitoring (PSM) with seismometer arrays is a widely used technique that has been...
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Updated Date: March 12, 2024