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Oklahoma’s earthquakes are threatening a strategic crude oil storage depot, and the state’s regulators are shutting down some disposal wells in response. That’s the latest in a string of developments as Oklahoma tries to slow down an explosion of earthquakes that seismologists blame on the injection of wastewater from oil exploration.
We explore energy production in the United States. From North Dakota to Oklahoma, Texas and Washington, we’ll look at how fracking has opened new realms of oil and gas production – and we’ll examine some of the complex consequences of so-called energy independence.
Join reporters as they hop in a car and drive toward the epicenter of two earthquakes that had just struck near a small Oklahoma town, to see the after-effects and talk to the people who live in the area.
Until 2009, earthquakes that people could feel were rare in Oklahoma. But by 2014, Oklahoma had more than three times as many earthquakes as California.
The U.S. Geological Survey is planning to significantly upgrade its forecasts of seismic hazards in places such as Oklahoma that have seen dramatic increases in earthquakes since 2009.
Oklahoma officials are beefing up their regulation of the injection of wastewater from oil and gas into deep layers of rock that scientists blame for an explosion of earthquakes.
Earthquakes are synonymous with California to most Americans, but other states are seeing more earthquakes likely triggered by human activity.