Oil Companies May Have Triggered Texas' Latest Earthquake

A "notable earthquake" rattled Texas early Wednesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reported, and experts believe the quake could have been triggered by oil companies.

A 5.3 magnitude earthquake originated near Mentone, Texas, in the early morning hours on Wednesday. Mentone is an unincorporated area in the Texas panhandle populated by only 22 people, according to 2020 census data. The shaking extended to several municipalities outside of the small town and even caused some minor injuries.

"A rare magnitude 5.2 earthquake just struck near Mentone, Texas, moments ago, with multiple people reporting being awakened by the shaking," social media account @rawsalerts posted at 6:18 a.m. ET on X, formerly Twitter.

"The quake, originating near Mentone, Texas, is expected to be felt in areas including Midland, Carlsbad, Lubbock, and even El Paso, Texas, as well as Roswell, New Mexico. There have been reports of minor injuries due to falling objects and some minor medical issues," it said.

The quake has since been upgraded to a 5.3 by the USGS.

Newsweek reached out to the USGS via email for comment.

The @rawsalerts post on X called the earthquake "rare," but Texas earthquakes have been increasing in number and severity over the past several years. Oil companies and their disposal of wastewater have been identified as a driver behind the increase.

Earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 3 have increased drastically in the Permian Basin of west Texas and New Mexico since 2019. The Permian Basin is the highest-producing oil field in the U.S. Oil drilling produces wastewater, which is often disposed of by injecting the water underground into disposal wells. However, the accumulating water creates a rise in pressure which can trigger an earthquake when the pressure hits a fault line, according to a report by Forbes.

The substantial jump in the number and severity of earthquakes in Texas—an area that rarely saw earthquakes exceeding a magnitude 3 prior to 2015—has spurred a series of regulations that curtailed the growth but didn't reduce the number of earthquakes the Permian basin experienced.

Seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones told Newsweek that although earthquakes triggered by humans look the same as earthquakes occurring naturally, the causes that sparked an earthquake in Texas on Wednesday morning were "probably human."

Jones said that since earthquakes in the Permian basin are "not a long-term pattern," earthquakes are "almost certainly [caused by] human activity."

"Before we were in there pumping [oil], there were very few earthquakes in the area. Now, there's a lot," she said, adding: "We have seen this in basically every situation in which you really increase the fluid pressure."

Jones explained that oil companies must dispose of the wastewater associated with drilling for oil. The increased pressure near fault lines can trigger an earthquake. Other human events also can trigger earthquakes, such as the construction of dams.

The earthquake on Wednesday morning originated in an area of Texas that has experienced seismic activity in the past. Social media user @CPPGeophysics posted a map of the recent quake on X and said that the seismic activity was likely "to have been induced by nearby wastewater disposal operations."

The USGS said that a magnitude 5.3 earthquake is considered a moderate earthquake. Damage from an earthquake often depends on outside variables, such as one's distance from the earthquake or the soil they are on, but the USGS said earthquake damage usually occurs once a magnitude surpasses a 4 or 5.