Oklahoma Earthquakes

Image source: Petersen, Mark, et al. “2017 One‐Year Seismic‐Hazard Forecast for the Central and Eastern United States from Induced and Natural Earthquakes.” Seismological Research Letters, vol. 88, no. 3, 2017, p. 781. View Source

Since 2009, several hundred earthquakes centered in northcentral Oklahoma have been attributed to wastewater disposal, in which fluid byproducts from oil and gas production are injected deep underground. Seismologists estimate that the region has the same chance of earthquake damage as parts of California along the San Andreas Fault and a greater chance than southeast Missouri along the New Madrid Fault.