Briant Merchant: Fracking May Have Caused 50 Earthquakes in Oklahoma!

In a surprising turn of events, Cuadrilla Resources, a British energy company, recently admitted that its hydraulic fracturing operations very likely caused an earthquake in England. Predictably, this news quickly sent a shock-wave through the UK, the oil and gas industries, and the environ-mental activist community, and it certainly feeds plenty of speculation that the same phenomenon could be occurring elsewhere. Speculation that could be well-founded, evidently. Right on the heels of Cuadrilla's announcement, news is spreading that the United States Geological Survey has released a report that links a series of earthquakes in Oklahoma last January to a frack-ing operation underway there. Evidently, a resident reported feeling some minor earthquakes, spur -ring the USGS to investigate. They found that some 50 small earthquakes had indeed been registered, ranging in magnitude from 1.0 to 2.8. The bulk of these occurred within 2.1 miles of the Eola Field, a fracking operation in southern Garvin County. The USGS determined that "from the character of the seismic recordings, indications are that they are both shallow and unique."