Unusual very shallow magnitude 4.0 earthquake in Ohio

Last update: January 2, 2012 at 12:23 pm by ByArmand Vervaeck and James Daniell

Earthquake overview : A single shallow earthquake alerted people in Ohio and even in the neighboring states.  Some officials suspect “fracking” to be at the origin of this earthquake, others say that there is no proof that the earthquakes are caused by fracking but are caused near brine injection wells, not fracking.
Update 02/01 – 12:19 UTC
An official in Ohio said on Sunday that the underground disposal of wastewater from natural-gas drilling operations would remain halted in the Youngstown area until scientists could analyze data from the most recent of a string of earthquakes there.

There are luckily no reports of serious damage.

Earthquake-Report received a big number of experience Felt It reports. We thank the many people sending us their testimonies.  The Felt It reports can be found below.

NPR writes : Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is related to the injection of wastewater into the ground near a fault line, creating enough pressure to cause seismic activity.  The brine wastewater comes from drilling operations that use the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Jim Zehringer said during a news teleconference that fracking is not causing the quakes. “The seismic events are not a direct result of fracking,” he said.
“Fracking” is common in this area of the state, but this earthquake, and the others in the area over the past year have been near a “brine injection well“, and not any fracking wells. Officials do now believe that the earthquakes are related to the injection wells, but not fracking.
Earthquake-report.com knows that fracking is a highly controversial issue. Both sides have a hard time to proof that they are right.  The heated discussion is not only actual in Ohio, but also in a number of other US States.

Feli It map – image courtesy USGS

for more information and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/01/01/unusual-very-shallow-earthquake-in-ohio/