Texas experienced a series of earthquakes on Friday, but, luckily, the state known for doing everything big does not coincide with the intensity of the tremors experienced by Californians and other coastal communities.
On Friday, the most recent Texas tremor, focused on the western region of the State at 19 miles from Liene, recorded a magnitude of 3.3 at 9:01 am
A magnitude of 2.3 hit the same area approximately two hours before. The USGS also captured an estimate of 10 minor tremors in the area in the last 24 hours, from 1.7 to 2.4 magnitude.
No injuries or damage were reported.
While this tremor can get the attention of the Texans, it generally requires earthquakes of 6 magnitude and more so that Californians and other western councils fight to cover themselves.
While western Texas has several failures, earthquakes were probably caused by induced seismicity: earthquakes caused by human activities, agreeing to geologists and the Texas Railway Commission in Quakes.
They report that oil and gas operations are causing earthquakes mainly through the injection of wastewater that enter underground pressure, lubricating failures and make them more likely to slide. The great oil state of Texas has experienced 406 earthquakes in the last 30 days and 79 earthquakes in the last seven days.
Dr. Xiawoei Chen, an associated professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Texas A&M that specializes in earthquake breakup, said about a similar series of earthquakes last summer:
The earthquakes occur when the tension that is loaded in a fault is the resistance of the fault, similar to pulling a box with a spring in a regular surface: the friction between the box and the surface holds the static box, while stretching the voltage load of the jumping installments. The injected water increases the pressure of the pores and alters the normal and cutting tensions in the fault, which causes it to slide more easily and produce earthquakes, such as pulling the same box on an aqueous surface.
While some environmentalists point out earthquakes as a dangerous consequence of fracking, no important damage or injuries has reported by the leg over the years.
The strongest earthquake reported in Texas occurs long before fracking. It was a 6.0 tremor with an epicenter in Valentine in Jeff Davis County on August 16, 1931.
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