The Railroad Commission Texas, which regulates the state’s oil and fuel business, is investigating a 5.4-magnitude earthquake that rocked communities in West Texas final Wednesday, The Texas Tribune reports. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a drilling method frequent within the space that’s identified to trigger earthquakes.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake occurred on November 16, simply west of Pecos, Texas. This was the state’s largest earthquake since 1995 and was felt so far as El Paso. The oil and fuel regulatory company is making an attempt to grasp if this was a naturally occurring earthquake or if it was attributable to waste water from fracking. Waste water disposal from fracking has dramatically increased the variety of earthquakes in Texas. The seismic exercise has particularly develop into extra frequent across the Permian Basin in West Texas, the place oil and fuel manufacturing is concentrated, in accordance with the Texas Tribune.

During the fracking course of, oil firms inject a mixture of water, sand, and chemical compounds into Earth’s crust. This fractures the rock formation, which then permits the businesses to extract pure fuel and oil from deep within the floor. Many oil and fuel firms dispose of this polluted waste water in wells deep underground. The strain from these wells can set off close by dormant fault strains, inflicting earthquakes. A number of the recorded seismic exercise round areas like Pecos and El Paso has been related to those contaminated underwater wells, in accordance with research from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Texas Tribune previously reported that the variety of earthquakes within the state doubled in 2021. According to information from the Bureau of Economic Geology on the University of Texas at Austin, there have been greater than 200 earthquakes categorized as 3 magnitude and better. There have been solely 95 earthquakes reported in Texas in 2020, in accordance with the Bureau’s information.

Communities close to hydraulic fracturing websites are in danger from extra than simply rumbling floor. A research this previous January related fracking to untimely deaths of people that dwell close to the websites. Fracking is thought to pose vital well being dangers: The websites contaminate close by water sources, and fracking leaks carcinogenic pollution into the air and water. Fracking can even launch PFAS into the setting, chemical compounds linked to quite a lot of well being points.