{"id":34188,"date":"2014-02-03T09:41:14","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T15:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=34188"},"modified":"2014-04-01T13:01:22","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T18:01:22","slug":"heres-why-texans-are-hearing-a-loud-boom-when-earthquakes-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/02\/03\/heres-why-texans-are-hearing-a-loud-boom-when-earthquakes-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Texans Are Hearing a ‘Loud Boom’ During Earthquakes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Residents<\/a>

Photo by Sam Ortega\/KUT<\/p>

Residents of North Texas testifying before the Railroad Commission in Austin in January 2014.<\/p><\/div>\n

A Very Different Oil and Gas ‘Boom’ Comes to Texas<\/em><\/h4>\n

“You might think you were in Iraq or Afghanistan,” Greg Morrison told a panel of state officials in Azle, Texas recently. “It feels like a semi truck hitting your house with a bomb going off.”<\/p>\n

He was describing the experience of a 3.6 magnitude earthquake that hit his North Texas town late last year. Earthquakes were all but unknown in the area until a few years ago; now communities in the region are experiencing dozens of them,\u00a0sometimes\u00a0multiple times a day. In fact, there was one near the North Texas community of Benbrook <\/a>just this weekend.<\/p>\n

North Texas is not alone in being shook up. As the oil and gas boom has taken off, several areas of Texas (as well as other states) are experiencing quakes. These are often areas where drilling is taking place or where drilling waste water disposal wells are present<\/a>.\u00a0And, in\u00a0many instances, residents are reporting loud noises — a “boom” — along with the shaking.<\/p>\n