Don Blakeman, National Earthquake Information Center and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), gives an overview of the 4.5 earthquake registered just north of Stanton, Texas. Midland (TX), which is considered the epicenter of oil and gas activity in the United States, is located about 15 miles southwest of where the quake occurred.
The earthquake took place at 7:55 p.m. CT and reached a depth of 4.8 miles, according to the USGS. It is tied for the second strongest quake in West Texas in the last decade, according to the USGS.
Host Jason Spiess and Blakeman discuss the obvious finger-pointing towards oil and gas and some of the inaccuracies in the media’s science and reporting.
“The basic simplified way of thinking about this is that is it isn’t the fracking that causes earthquakes,” Blakeman said. “Fracking does occasionally cause what are called ‘microquakes’, which are very very tiny insignificant quakes. It’s actually the reinjection of the waste fluid in fracking and the disposal well that has induced quakes.”
Blakeman continued saying these injection well quakes have been known about since the 1960’s.
“So basically this is not a new phenomenon but the fact fracking has become a much more prevalent practice in the oil industry is why we are seeing this,” Blakeman said.
He added that they see 10-20 minor earthquakes in West Texas everyday.
However, it is the first earthquake with a magnitude of 4.0 or greater in or around Midland since December 31, 2020.
In West Texas, there have been over 10 earthquakes in the past week with a M1.5 or greater, 144 earthquakes in the past 30 days and 3,063 earthquakes in the past 365 days according to EarthquakeTrack.com
View an interactive map here: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/tx2021zjsk/map
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