{"id":39376,"date":"2015-01-05T10:26:05","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T16:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=39376"},"modified":"2015-01-06T16:58:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T22:58:32","slug":"amid-a-new-swarm-in-quakes-researchers-head-to-irving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2015\/01\/05\/amid-a-new-swarm-in-quakes-researchers-head-to-irving\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid a New Swarm of Quakes, Researchers Head to Irving"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_39380\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"This map from the USGS shows the approximate location of a recent quake near Irving, Texas. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/01\/Irving-Quake.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-39380\" alt=\"This map from the USGS shows the approximate location of a recent quake near Irving, Texas. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/01\/Irving-Quake-300x226.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/01\/Irving-Quake-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/01\/Irving-Quake.jpg 470w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy of USGS<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">This map from the USGS shows the approximate location of a recent quake near Irving, Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>Updated 1\/6\/14 with more comment from Railroad\u00a0Commission\u00a0and information on Tuesday January 6th earthquake.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A team of seismologists headed to the North Texas town of Irving Monday. \u00a0Like some other Texas towns, Irving has experienced scores of small earthquakes lately, 20 since last September, including a magnitude 3.5 quake that struck on January 6th. And the city is hoping to figure out what\u2019s behind the shaking.<\/p>\n<p>The upsurge in\u00a0quakes started in Texas around the time the oil and gas boom took hold several years ago. \u00a0Residents in many parts of the state\u00a0blame the them on wastewater disposal wells, where fluid byproducts of\u00a0oil and gas drilling are pumped deep into the ground. \u00a0Scientists have shown how injecting fluid into the ground can cause earthquakes.<\/p>\n<p>After a spate of quakes in\u00a0the North Texas town of\u00a0Azle, the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state\u2019s oil and gas regulator, hired a seismologist, Dr. David Craig Pearson, and passed <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/10\/28\/responding-to-quakes-texas-passes-disposal-well-rules\/\">new regulations<\/a> for disposal wells. The Commission says it is not investigating the Irving quakes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Railroad Commission is not investigating seismic activity around Irving,&#8221; Ramona Nye, a spokesperson for the Commission wrote in an email to StateImpact Texas. &#8220;Specifically, there are no disposal wells in Dallas County, and there is only one natural gas well in the vicinity, and it is an inactive well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/10\/28\/responding-to-quakes-texas-passes-disposal-well-rules\/\">Responding to Quakes, Texas Passes Disposal Well Rules<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/05\/12\/heres-9-studies-showing-a-link-between-quakes-and-drilling-activity-in-texas\/\">Here Are 9 Studies Linking Quakes and Drilling Activity in Texas<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/01\/03\/anger-greets-state-officials-in-quake-prone-texas-town\/\">Anger Greets State Officials in Quake-Prone Texas Town<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/07\/109445102.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/earthquake\/\">How Oil and Gas Disposal Wells Can Cause Earthquakes<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/Class1Wells-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/injection-well\/\">How Do Disposal Wells Work?<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>&#8220;The Railroad Commission is aware of these recent earthquakes in the Irving area, and Dr. Pearson has put SMU researchers in contact with City of Carrollton personnel so that SMU researchers can install a seismometer in the area to further pinpoint the locations of these seismic events,&#8221; \u00a0Nye wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Scott Hudson, the Environmental Services Director of Carrollton, said to his knowledge no one from that city had been in touch with the Railroad Commission. But\u00a0Chris Hillman, the City Manager of Irving \u00a0said\u00a0his city had &#8220;reached out&#8221; to the Commission and that\u00a0SMU researchers will travel to Irving today to install the monitor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we learn and understand more about these issues, we\u2019ll continue to pass along more information to our residents,&#8221; says Hillman.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Nye said the Commission&#8217;s Seismologist Dr. Pearson was not available for an interview.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement emailed to StateImpact Texas, Prof. Brian Stump SMU&#8217;s Chair of Geological Sciences, says installing the monitor will help researchers understand what&#8217;s happening under Irving.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pinpointing the exact location of the earthquakes is dependent on local seismometers and thus the first step in understanding the nature of the seismic activity,&#8221; \u00a0wrote Stump. &#8220;The team will continue to interact with local officials about the seismic events.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated 1\/6\/14 with more comment from Railroad\u00a0Commission\u00a0and information on Tuesday January 6th earthquake. A team of seismologists headed to the North Texas town of Irving Monday. \u00a0Like some other Texas towns, Irving has experienced scores of small earthquakes lately, 20 since last September, including a magnitude 3.5 quake that struck on January 6th. And the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[104],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39376"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39383,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39376\/revisions\/39383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}