Hazard: Human-induced earthquakes

The extraction of gas and oil by fracking—large-scale fracturing of underground rocks by injecting water, sand and additives—is generating growing concern in Argentine Patagonia.

A series of more than 100 small earthquakes in Surrey in 2018 and 2019 might have been triggered by oil extraction from a nearby well, suggests a new study by UCL researchers.

There’s an important dividing line in the history of recent Texas earthquakes, when the establishment of the Texas Seismological Network (TexNet) introduced the ability to monitor seismic events to much lower magnitude.

A pair of papers published Jan. 29 provides new confirmation of speculations that fluids deep underground create fractures in the rock, and that this creates rumblings that match the tiny tremors observed at the surface.

Geophysicists from Freie Universität Berlin among the researchers investigating human-induced earthquakes.

New research reveals wastewater injected underground by fossil fuel operators caused a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in November 2022 in the Peace River area of Alberta’s oil sands region.

Researchers were able to observe stress changes before and during an earthquake induced by hydraulic fracturing in Alberta, Canada, with the help of a phenomenon called seismic anisotropy.

By showing that injections of fracturing fluids can cause a slow slip on a fault and produce an earthquake, new research marks a milestone in explaining seismic events.

New research finds that pumping too much water from the Sea of Galilee, and thus 'unclamping' its fault, can be the cause of earthquakes.

UK Scientists have found that microseismic event data more accurately inform operators about the risk of dangerous seismic activity at fracking sites.