Fracking? Injecting wastewater? New insight on ground shaking from human-made earthquakes
Thursday, April 23, 2015 - 23:30
in Earth & Climate
Significant strides in science have been made to better understand potential ground shaking from induced earthquakes, which are earthquakes triggered by human practices. Earthquake activity has sharply increased since 2009 in the central and eastern United States. Many questions have been raised about whether hydraulic fracturing -- commonly referred to as "fracking" -- is responsible for the recent increase of earthquakes. The increase has been linked to industrial operations that dispose of wastewater by injecting it into deep wells.