5.3 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Texas, Possible Links to Oil Company Wastewater Disposal Practices Emerge

Rare earthquake wakes Texas residents; links to oil extraction wastewater disposal methods intensify as frequency and severity of such quakes have increased significantly since 2019 in areas with high levels of oil production.

Texas experienced a 5.3 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday, originating near the small town of Mentone in the Texas panhandle, leaving some minor injuries due to falling objects.
Aside from the Mentone area, the earthquake was expected to be and felt in larger areas including Midland, Carlsbad, Lubbock, El Paso, and even as far as Roswell, New Mexico.
Seismologists and experts suggest that the increase in quake incidents and severity could be due to oil drilling activities of the oil companies in the region.
Disposal of wastewater from oil drilling often involves injecting the water into disposal wells underground which can trigger an earthquake when the accumulating water creates a pressure rise and hits a fault line.
The frequent and severe earthquakes in Texas since 2019 have led to a series of regulations to curtail oil drilling growth, but it has not reduced the number of quakes especially in the Permian Basin, the U.S.'s highest-producing oil field.
Despite these recent seismological activities, earthquakes measuring 5.0 or higher are still considered rare in Texas with only five recorded since 1900, including this most recent event.