A magnitude 3.3 earthquake shook Smiley, a community of about 700 in Gonzales County. No damage was reported.
Smiley is about 160 miles west of Houston.
According to the Texas Tribune, West Texas has seen a dramatic increase in earthquakes, which jumped from 19 in 2009 to 1,600 in 2017 alone, according to a study published by the University of Texas at Austin.
The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, followed nearly 20 years of seismic activity. The scientists documented more than 7,000 earthquakes near Pecos in 2009, most of which were so small that no one felt it. The scientists used an earthquake monitoring system that was some distance from Pecos but was sensitive enough to pick up vibrations 150 miles away.
“West Texas now has the highest seismicity in the state,” co-author and Southern Methodist University associate professor Heather DeShon said in a written statement. “What remained uncertain is when the earthquakes actually began. This study addresses this.”
While earthquake activity coincided with a large increase in oil and gas production in west Texas, there is no attempt to connect the two.
The research lays the foundation for ‘understanding the link between earthquakes and their human and natural causes’, said Peter Hennings, co-author of the study and a researcher at the UT Bureau of Economic Geology, in a written statement.
West Texas has seen oil and gas production increase at an unprecedented rate, exacerbating air pollution and leading to a housing shortage, according to a 2018 joint survey by The Texas Tribune and Center for Public Integrity.
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