Why has Oklahoma experienced a nearly 4000% increase in earthquake activity?
Monday, November 21, 2016 - 17:21
in Earth & Climate
In 2015 alone, residents of Oklahoma felt the earth move beneath them a total of 907 times, as an unprecedented number of magnitude three or higher earthquakes racked the state. While Oklahoma has historically experienced its share of seismicity, in the last eight years the rate of earthquake occurrence in the state has increased by a factor of 43—approximately 4,000%. According to earthquake researchers, including civil and environmental engineering (CEE) Ph.D. student Pengyun Wang, wastewater injection and other fluid injection technologies have something to do with it.
