Survey says…fracking is causing earthquakes

Survey says…fracking is causing earthquakes by Farron Cousins, April 11, 2012, TheTyee.ca
A new report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says that the increased seismic activity taking place in certain areas of the United States is almost certainly the result of oil and gas drilling activities. The group has been studying dozens of earthquakes across America for the last eight months and determined that the man-made quakes were taking place in areas where fracking or deep waste water injection had recently occurred. … The modest increase that began in 2001 is due to increased seismicity in the coal bed methane field of the Raton Basin along the Colorado-New Mexico border west of Trinidad, CO. … What’s interesting is that the USGS points out the obvious fact that has been ignored by the industry – these earthquakes are occurring in areas where earthquakes shouldn’t be happening. Still, that hasn’t stopped the energy industry from denying that there is a correlation between fracking and earthquakes. … Previous reports on DeSmogBlog have pointed out that the link between gas exploration and earthquakes has been widely known for over 40 years. The new report from the USGS will be presented to Seismological Society of America for further analysis and consideration.