Human activity has caused nearly 1,000 earthquakes

A group of geologists in the UK have established a database of earthquakes caused by human activities. The database is presented on a special website and is described in an article published in Seismological Research Letters.

The collected information covers the past 149 years. During this period, humanity caused a total of 728 earthquakes. Most of them are weak earthquakes, with magnitudes ranging from 3 to 4 richter. But there are also strong earthquakes, for example, a Nepal earthquake in April 2015 with a magnitude of 7.8 magnitude due to groundwater pumping. When a project, for example conducting a project to pump wastewater, also causes a number of earthquakes, they have been recorded in the database as an event.

Earthquake consequences are often terrible.

Researchers at Durham and Newcastle universities, UK, have begun processing data in 2016. The project is funded by the Dutch oil and gas company, NAM. This company is interested in statistics of small earthquakes caused by gas production in Groningen gas field.

To collect data, scientists analyzed scientific articles and publications. Accordingly, the oldest artificial earthquake occurred in Australia in 1868 due to coal mining activities. Of the 728 seismic events recorded, there are 271 (37%) related to mineral mining , often the collapse of the tunnel in the mines. About 23% is related to the formation of reservoirs, 15% is due to oil and gas exploitation activities, 4% is due to hydraulic fracturing of reservoirs .

In rare cases, earthquakes occur after testing underground nuclear weapons or even after building large skyscrapers.