Earthquake Risk in North Texas Likely to Be Upgraded

The U.S. Geological Survey is considering raising its risk projections for earthquakes in North Texas.

The Dallas area has experienced more than 120 quakes since 2008. The Dallas Morning News reports that USGS will likely upgrade the risk of an earthquake occurring in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Irving, Texas, has experienced 22 earthquakes in a month.

According to Mark Petersen, chief of the agency’s National Seismic Hazard Project in Golden, Colo., the risk level will be elevated but not by much.

For the first time the agency will include quakes believed to be caused by human activity in its National Seismic Hazard Map.

Southern Methodist University seismologists have linked two local earthquake clusters with wastewater injection wells, where companies dispose of chemical-laced fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing process.