Study links Oklahoma earthquake to oil drilling

BBC : A large earthquake that struck Oklahoma in November 2011 and affected at least 17 states may be related to wastewater injection from an oil-drilling operation, according to a recent study in Geology. “The new study adds to an increasing body of evidence that the injection of wastewater is correlated to an increase in seismic events,” writes Jason Palmer for the BBC. In their study, Geoffrey Abers of Columbia University and colleagues propose that such induced seismicity can occur decades after wastewater injection begins and that the number and size of such earthquakes are increasing. The possibility that humans can induce earthquakes from injection activities has been discussed before, particularly in reference to hydraulic fracturing , or fracking.