Fracking to blame? Alabama earthquakes occurring near shale-gas developments

‘More than a dozen minor earthquakes have struck western Alabama’s Greene County since November. The area is near the Black Warrior Basin, where thousands of hydraulic fracturing natural gas wells have been operating in recent years.

The Associated Press reported Sunday that Greene County has had 14 notable yet inexplicable seismic events since November 20, starting with a magnitude 3.8 quake 10 miles northwest of Eutaw. The latest was a magnitude 3.0 earthquake on June 6.

“It is interesting that recently there has been more activity there than in the last four decades,” Sandy Ebersole of the Geological Survey of Alabama told AP.’

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