Four earthquakes have shaken Texas since yesterday, the Houston Chronicle newspaper reports.
From the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to the edge of the Panhandle, the Lone Star State woke up to series of three earthquakes, the paper reports. Those follow another earthquake that yesterday afternoon.
The paper reports:
The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 4.0-magnitude earthquake hit in a rural area about 12 miles north of Snyder in Scurry County just after 2 a.m. Tuesday.
A 3.2-magnitude earthquake was recorded about 6.5 miles southwest of the Fort Worth suburb of Mansfield just before 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.
USGS officials reported that a 2.5-magnitude earthquake was recorded about 13 miles north of Snyder just before 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.
There were no immediate reports of damage but the 4.0-magnitude earthquake near Snyder tied with a Monday afternoon earthquake in the same area as the strongest earthquake in Texas so far this year, data from the University of Texas at Austin-run TexNet Seismic Monitoring Program shows.
Environmentalists blame the tremors on saltwater disposal wells, which inject wastewater generated in the hydraulic fracturing process and other oil and natural gas activities deep underground.
Past scientific studies from Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survery have confirmed that some of the earthquakes were man made, but oil & gas industry experts dispute those findings.
To read the whole story from the Chronicle, click here.
