According to USGS, three earthquakes struck in practically the same spot in Arkansas over an 8 hour period ending Sunday morning. They all happened near Lynn which is just west of Jonesboro and about 150 miles northeast of Hot Springs and about 100 miles northwest of Memphis, Tennessee. The first struck at 6:20 pm Saturday night from a depth of 2.8 km; it was a magnitude 2.0 event. The second struck at 10:12 pm from a depth of 2.6 km; it was a weaker magnitude 1.8 event. The third earthquake struck at 1:11 am Sunday morning and was weaker yet, rated as a magnitude 1.5 event striking from a depth of 3 km. The area is not far from the heart of an area known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone.
According to USGS, earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or less are rarely felt or heard by people, but once they exceed 2.0 , more and more people can feel them. While damage is possible with magnitude 3.0 events or greater, significant damage and casualties usually don’t occur until the magnitude of a seismic event rises to a 5.5 or greater rated event.
The area is involved in the fracking industry and it is not known whether today’s earthquake is related to that. Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is done in Arkansas, primarily in the Fayetteville Shale formation. This process is used to extract natural gas from the shale and accounts for a significant portion of the state’s gas production. While fracking offers economic benefits, it also raises environmental concerns, including water usage and potential for earthquakes.
Fracking-generating earthquakes have been a concern in places like Oklahoma and could also become problematic for other areas involved in the energy industry. Beginning in 2009, Oklahoma experienced a surge in seismicity according to USGS. “This surge was so large that its rate of magnitude 3 and larger earthquakes exceeded California’s from 2014 through 2017,” writes USGS in a report analyzing the increase in seismicity here. “While these earthquakes have been induced by oil and gas related process, few of these earthquakes were induced by fracking. The largest earthquake known to be induced by hydraulic fracturing in Oklahoma was a M3.6 earthquakes in 2019. The largest known fracking induced earthquake in the United States was a M4.0 earthquake that occurred in Texas in 2018. The majority of earthquakes in Oklahoma are caused by the industrial practice known as “wastewater disposal”. Wastewater disposal is a separate process in which fluid waste from oil and gas production is injected deep underground far below ground water or drinking water aquifers. In Oklahoma over 90% of the wastewater that is injected is a byproduct of oil extraction process and not waste frack fluid.”…