4.4 Eq in West Texas? What's going on here?

Originally posted by kosmicjack
I wonder if this is a result of the exceptional drought they are in? If the water table is drying up, that is bound to change things down below the surface of the Earth.

Interesting point.

Any idea how deep the groundwater table is in this location?

6 miles may or may not be too deep to explain this sufficiently.

I'll look around and see if I can find some information about this.

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by kosmicjack
I wonder if this is a result of the exceptional drought they are in? If the water table is drying up, that is bound to change things down below the surface of the Earth.

Interesting point.

Any idea how deep the groundwater table is in this location?

According to the Aquifer data linked in my previous post, the mid point of the ground water resides approximately 2,000-feet below the surface. So, I would infer from the information provided that the maximum depth of the aquifer is no more than 4,000-feet.

earthquakes do happen in texas just not very often....just go check out the US geological site for more information, if it was a real earthquake i'm sure they will have it there posted on the map....there is nothing weird about it, it happens.....there was one in San Antonio a couple of years back...and no Nothing is going on haha

reply to post by muzzleflash


Sorry, sorry, had a bad case of gas this morning.. you know,, all the beans.
Seriously though, didnt feel anything out this way but google the lt/long coords and see whats around them. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere and just group of old sheds slightly north.

reply to post by Aggie Man


Thanks. It appears the water table and the gas drilling zones are too shallow to account for the depth of this quake.

I have done more research and discovered some information that may be related to this event.

Balcones Fault zone Texas (wiki)

The Balcones Fault Zone is a tensional structural system[1] in Texas (USA) that runs approximately from the southwest part of the state near Del Rio to the north central region near Waco along Interstate 35. The Balcones Fault zone is made up of many smaller features, including normal faults, grabens, and horsts.[2] One of the obvious features is the Mount Bonnell Fault.

Hopefully this link works

If that link works, it was a basic map of fault lines I found on Google "fault lines Texas". It appears the northern rim of the Balconian province. The map is from 1950 I believe, so it's very dated. Hopefully I can locate some fault maps that are more up to date.

This map from the USGS shows "Seismic Hazard" probabilities.

USGS map

The epicenter of the quake was in a location that is marked as having the lowest incidence probability ratios in comparison to other areas which are far more active. I shall continue looking for a more detailed map of known faults within the area.

Originally posted by Goradd
earthquakes do happen in texas just not very often....just go check out the US geological site for more information, if it was a real earthquake i'm sure they will have it there posted on the map....there is nothing weird about it, it happens.....there was one in San Antonio a couple of years back...and no Nothing is going on haha

I am kind of offended by your post. We have been posting USGS links throughout the thread...where have you been?

It is a real quake, it's location is highly anomalous.

There are already maps presented, theories presented and weighed, information correlated to dismiss or entertain various possibilities, etc.

It was already mentioned that the quake around this location several years ago was a known gas well explosion event, and that this does not correlate too well with today's 4.4 quake at a depth of over 6 miles. The water table is barely a mile, and gas wells are typically 2-4 miles in depth.

If you would mind taking a closer look at the information available, you would realize that your post is inconsistent with the discussion so far.

I think remember that and you are right about gas and gas pockets. I think that one explosion was back when that Huntsman plant got shut down in the Midland Odessa area for air pollution... hmm so in the 80s?

The average wells are around 20 thousand plus feet in depth and they do frac/stimulate and cement these wells. It is not unusual to see haliburton trucks, baker hughes and other local service companies on the highways and at certain "boom times" the rigs are up like daisies.

Thanks for taking notice by the way, Big spring and Snyder are just up the road a bit and id not have known about the quake if you hadn't mentioned it.

Earthquakes can be triggered by any significant perturbation of the hydrologic regime. In areas where potentially active faults are already close to failure, the increased pore pressure resulting from fluid injection, or, alternatively, the massive extraction of fluid or gas, can induce sufficient stress and/or strain changes that, with time, can lead to sudden catastrophic failure in a major earthquake. Injection-induced earthquakes typically result from the reduction in frictional strength along preexisting, nearby faults caused by the increased formation fluid pressure. Earthquakes associated with production appear to respond to more complex mechanisms of subsidence, crustal unloading, and poroelastic changes in response to applied strains induced by the massive withdrawal of subsurface material. As each of these different types of triggered events can occur up to several years after well activities have begun (or even several years after all well activities have stopped), this suggests that the actual triggering process may be a very complex combination of effects, particularly if both fluid extraction and injection have taken place locally. To date, more than thirty cases of earthquakes triggered by well activities can be documented throughout the United States and Canada. Based on these case histories, it is evident that, owing to preexisting stress conditions in the upper crust, certain areas tend to have higher probabilities of exhibiting such induced seismicity.

So far we have established that there is:

-Evidence for fracking in the nearby area


-Injection induced earthquakes can occur at fairly deep depths at least down to 8.8 km

Almost 400 microearthquakes were induced at an average depth of 8.8 km by injection of KBr/KCl brine into a ∼70 m open hole section near the bottom of the borehole

source HERE

-Droughts seem to have a correlation to earthquakes.

Among China’s millions of microbloggers, few of whom appear to be climate scientists, there’s a wide range of opinion on whether or not the dam is the cause of the drought. One opinion that’s been resurrected in the midst of the dam debate is its supposed role in triggering 2008’s devastating Wenchuan earthquake – and that quake had some connection to a previous drought. Journalist Zhao Shilong, opining on the Sina microblog, joined other microbloggers in making this explicit connection: “There are certain connections between the drought and earthquakes. Three years after the southwest drought, the ... Wenchuan Earthquake occurred. This year there is a drought in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River ... It is very strange! We should beware of it.”

In this general area of Texas one can find all of the ingredients: a nearby resevoir, hydrologic fracturing, and a severe drought.

What else are we missing?

My instinct keeps telling me that there is something going on with the recent swarm of earthquakes we've had, particularly in the US. If the earthquakes were in more geologically active areas I might not be so suspicious but Texas, Virginia and Utah are not necessarily hot beds for seismic activity. Yes, there have been historical precedents for earthquakes in those areas...it's just that this many of them so close together time wise is or should be of concern for everyone. I don't know what it all means...Are they related incidents? Is it due to human activity? What about gravitational forces? We just had a period of solar flares...could there be a correlation? Maybe it's a combination of a lot of factors man made and natural. It's interesting to say the least.

Update:

2.5 quake in the Same location.

After-shock??

Link to USGS report

Exact same location. Does this rule out gas well explosions?
Hmmm.

I think you can rule out gas well explosions. Another one...wow! I hope that geologists are taking notice. I know that if I were working for USGS I'd be doing some serious research.

Another 2.7 EQ

earthquake.usgs.gov...

By the way I noticed that the depth of the latest quake is consistent with my theory of fracking being the cause.

That's pretty close together...a lot of activity for an area not known to be prone to any seismic disturbances.

Originally posted by Goradd
earthquakes do happen in texas just not very often....

..there is nothing weird about it, it happens.....there was one in San Antonio a couple of years back...

...yep, there was one here in 88 or 89... i was in the hammer lane on an overpass on the northside 410... it was one of those "fallers" as opposed to a "shaker" or a "roller"... the biggest danger was other drivers slamming on their brakes...

That's two aftershocks than so far.

2.5 and 2.7. Two hours apart, the first happened 6 hours after the 4.4.

Both depths were roughly 3 miles. Interesting.

Definitely going to keep an eye on this.

Interesting, they are all in the same (nearly exact) geological spot 32.8 degrees north by 100 degrees west.

reply to post by marzabeth


My bro-in-law works out west (Alberta) in the fraking industry. You bet your boots they go deeper than 6 miles!

Originally posted by marzabeth
Interesting, they are all in the same (nearly exact) geological spot 32.8 degrees north by 100 degrees west.

...not really - if you understand what the llano estacado is...