While drinking a cup of coffee together recently, my dad and I discussed the recent increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma, and the possibility that these were the product of natural gas extraction (aka fracking, hydraulic fracturing, etc.). My dad is a geologist with over 30 years of experience, an entrepreneur, and a retired member of the military, who currently runs his own consulting business. A geophysicist colleague of his quickly dismissed the possibility that fracking was causing earthquakes, and referenced Oklahoma’s historical proclivity for earthquakes based on its proximity to fault lines. My dad admitted that he didn’t know any better, but wanted my opinion (not based on any advanced understanding of geology, but rather my obsession with data visuals). I ran a few short queries to extract earthquake data from the USGS (US Geological Survey) and completed gas well data from the Oklahoma Geological Survey. What I found was pretty shocking. Completed gas wells in the state of Oklahoma average 1.47 wells from 1974-2004, but 344 a year from 2005-2015. Coincidentally, from 1974-2004, Oklahoma experienced an average of 2.08 earthquakes per year that registered a magnitude of 3.0 or greater. From 2005-2015, earthquake occurrence increased exponentially, and averaged over 161 per year during that period. In addition to this, the occurrence of shallow earthquakes (close to the surface), increased dramatically as well. Below is a figure that I created to help illustrate all this.

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