The Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy is working with the U.S. Geological Survey to get to the bottom of why there’s been a sudden spike in earthquake activity in northwest Louisiana. It was spurred by a magnitude 4.9 quake last week; and since then, there have been a series of other quakes, including four within a ten-minute span early Monday morning. Department spokesman Patrick Courreges says one potential cause is what’s called induced seismicity.
“If you’re injecting salt-water disposal wells in an area, there is the potential that that could cause some tremors, some activation of some discontinuities or faults underground,” Courreges explained.
Courreges says as such, C&E teams are looking at operations in the area, and they’ve actually been there since December.
“To see if we see anything and those operations out of the ordinary, where we see a big pressure jump up or down, or if we’re seeing injection rates are different than what they’re supposed to be,” Courreges said.
Courreges says while nothing has turned up yet, seismic staff and field agents are still looking.
“We are still checking sites in the area just to see if we’re seeing something unusual, see if two operators are doing something at the same time that might possibly create a situation where you might find a cause,” Courreges said.