Oklahoma’s Oil Country Faces Human-Made Earthquakes
Oklahoma has been at the center of a dramatic increase in earthquake activity over the past decade, with an approximately 800-fold increase in the annual number of earthquakes since 2011. Beginning in 2009, Oklahoma experienced a surge in seismicity that was so large that its rate of magnitude 3 and larger earthquakes exceeded California’s from 2014 through 2017. Most of these earthquakes aren’t caused by the famous hydraulic fracturing process itself, but rather by the massive amounts of wastewater disposal that comes with oil production. Wastewater disposal wells typically operate for longer durations and…..