Provincial regulators and petroleum producers in Western Canada
are waiting on the results of several studies looking into
possible links between industry activity and an increase in
minor earthquakes. While Alberta has increased the number of
earthquake monitoring devices across the province to better
understand seismic activity over the past decade, British
Columbia will be releasing a study this summer on possible links
between seismic activity and drilling. More immediately, a new
study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey points to an
"unprecedented" spike in mini-earthquake activity around areas
of intense oil and gas production. The activity is related to
injection of wastewater into deep wells and not hydraulic
fracturing activities, said co-author William Ellsworth. "What
we found is that there are earthquakes in association with
locations where wastewater is being disposed of underground,"
Ellsworth said in an interview with CNBC. "This is not news;
we've known about this for decades that under c