Not only do scientists believe oil and gas exploration is behind Oklahoma’s earthquakes but now a study concludes “fracking” associated with the exploration is what caused a deadly earthquake last year in South Korea.
Eighty-two people were hurt in the 5.5 magnitude earthquake that rocked the city of Pohang. As Newsweek reports, the scientists are making their latest claim associating fracking with earthquakes in a paper published in Science.
“According to our analysis it seems plausible that the occurrence of this earthquake was influenced by these industrial activities,” wrote the scientists in their study. “Finally, we found that the earthquake transferred static stress to larger nearby faults, potentially increasing the seismic hazard in the area.”
They pointed out that the quake was close to an Enhanced Geothermal Systems site where high pressure hydraulic injection had been performed during the previous two years.”
The fracking, according to the study took place from early 2016 to September 2017 and two months later, the earthquake struck near Pohang.
The main quake and its largest aftershocks took place within 1.2 millions of the fracking site.