My research in the past year has focused
on
the broad increase in the number for
earthquakes
in the central and eastern part in the
United States and whether or not
that increase  is
associated with
injection wells. The region has
experienced 20-30
magnitude three earthquakes every year
from 1973
up to 2008. That number of earthquakes is
subsequently
increased up to 650 earthquakes last
year
in the region, and so some people have hypothesized that this
increase in the number for the quakes is
related to injection wells.
When they inject they increase the fluid
pressure in the reservoir
and that fluid pressure can reach a critically stressed fault
such that they increase the likelihood
that the fault will slip.
New production methods that produced
much much larger volumes of wastewater
that need to be disposed of
producing new very very high rate
injection wells.
It's a statistically significant
correlation between
high injection rate injection wells and
earthquakes.  We think the biggest impact
in this research is managing injection
rates
and if if injection rates are managed
then
we think that the in due seismic hazard will
be managed.
