Scientists blame natural gas production for southern Colorado earthquakes

Seismograph printing seismic activity records of a severe earthquake

 

Recent earthquakes in southern Colorado are being blamed on wastewater injection wells—just like those in Oklahoma in years past and in the Permian Basin of West Texas in the past several months.

The southern Colorado quakes are near the city of Trinidad, an area known as the Raton Basin. Scientists blame nearby natural gas production and the waste injection wells.

“I think it’s highly likely that these earthquakes were induced by the wastewater disposal operations in the area,” Justin Rubinstein, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said in an interview with Colorado NewsLine.

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