A study of industrial, geologic, and seismic data from the Delaware Basin, Texas, a productive unconventional hydrocarbon region, spanning the years 1993--2020 finds that a recent surge in basin-wide seismic activity is likely due to the stresses induced by shallow wastewater injection, and finds variations in seismic activity across the basin that might help explain how industrial activity can produce earthquakes in some areas but not others, according to the authors.
Article #21-02338: "Widespread deep seismicity in the Delaware Basin, Texas, is mainly driven by shallow wastewater injection," by Guang Zhai, Manoochehr Shirzaei, and Michael Manga.
MEDIA CONTACT: Michael Manga, University of California, Berkeley, CA; tel: 510-643-8532; email: manga@seismo.berkeley.edu
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences