'Earthquake swarm' near Texas fracking sites alarms residents

[Judi Lynn]

'Earthquake swarm' near Texas fracking sites alarms residents

Seismologist acknowledges cluster of earthquakes is unusual

By Keith Boag, CBC News Posted: Jan 23, 2015 5:00 PM ET| Last Updated: Jan 23, 2015 5:40 PM ET

Senaida Martinez throws her head back and points a finger up. She makes her way carefully around her kitchen table, eyes fixed above, finger tracing in the air the long winding route of a thin fracture that runs across the ceiling and out into the hallway.

"This one was old. We patched it up. But then it got opened again, so that’s new," she says.

The new crack doesn’t bother her; the house is old and besides she’s only renting it.

But it means there’s been another earthquake, and that’s starting to get on her nerves.

There have been dozens of earthquakes in the past few months. They now average about one a day, although some days bring many more.

Martinez says she recently felt 12 earthquakes in one day.

They’ve all been small, usually less than magnitude 3.0, the kind of earthquakes Californians shrug off all the time.

But Martinez lives in Irving, Texas, known for floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires, not earthquakes.

So something has changed to suddenly set the ground trembling. Martinez thinks it’s the stepped-up fracking.

More:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/earthquake-swarm-near-texas-fracking-sites-alarms-residents-1.2927220

[Grins]

1. It was also known for the Dallas Cowboys

"Irving, Texas, known for floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires, not earthquakes."

And it was also known for the Dallas Cowboys who played most of their game in Irving until they built AT&T Stadium in Arlington, a mere 15-miles away.

The club is still headquartered there, but just wait until cracks start to show up in that new $1.5 Billion stadium, for which the city of Arlington is on the hook for a cool $325 million, then - pass the popcorn!

So who wins this one? Oil? Citizens? Or Cowboys? In a state that has zero zoning restrictions on property, I think I know.

[quadrature]

2. small eathquakes better than a big earthquake ...nt