A total of five micro-earthquakes with magnitudes of between 2.3 and 2.6 occurred within a three-day period just east of downtown Cleburne, a city located about 30 miles south-southwest of Fort Worth.
“Most folks are not necessarily scared or worried about it,” Cleburne City Manager Chester Nolen told the Fort Worth Business Press after the shaking from the third quake stopped. “We’ve got some people, they’re worried that it’s due to the gas drilling, then we’ve got some scientists who say, ‘oh it’s all due to gas drilling.’”
Drilling for natural gas has expanded rapidly across central and northern Texas since the 1980’s in a geological formation known as the Barnett Shale.
More than 10,000 wells are now in operation, and could possible be linked to the 10 unprecedented tremors that have occurred within 100 miles of Fort Worth since 2008.
According to the book Texas Earthquakes, written by University of Texas Austin geologist Cliff Frohlich, drilling itself does not cause earthquakes.
“However, earthquakes in some parts of Texas may be induced by the pumping of fluids at oil and gas fields or by the injection of fluids to dispose of chemical wastes … In only a few fields does evidence indicate that oil and gas pumping induces earthquakes,” Frohlich wrote.
Many Cleburne residents say they’re still not convinced it's not responsible for the whole lot of shaking going on around their town.