CMA Foundation is a 501(C)3 organization and a subsidiary of the California Medical Association. Â©
The study, published Tuesday in Seismological Research Letters, reports that fracking waste injection wells are now the leading cause of earthquakes in Texas. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves thrusting chemicals and water against shale rock to break it up and release oil or gas. The process produces large amounts of waste fluid, or brine, that is either recycled or disposed of in injection wells.
Plate Tectonics, the Cause of Earthquakes. The plates consist of an outer layer of the Earth, the lithosphere, which is cool enough to behave as a more or less rigid shell. Occasionally the hot asthenosphere of the Earth finds a weak place in the lithosphere to rise buoyantly as a plume, or hotspot.