The state of Texas has been rocked by over a dozen earthquakes in just the last day.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the quake struck just north of Odessa at 8:14am CT.

Just 15 minutes earlier, a 3.4 magnitude earthquake struck roughly 30 miles away.

Since 4am CT on Wednesday, Texas has experienced 16 minor earthquakes, all along the central and western parts of the state.

In April alone, USGS has recorded 36 earthquakes in this part of Texas, stretching from Stanton (41 miles northeast of Odessa) to Culberson County along the state’s western border with New Mexico.

The vast majority have been very small tremors, measuring between 1.0 and 1.8 in magnitude.

However, two quakes this morning were larger, the 3.4 magnitude quake and a 2.1 tremor 13 minutes later in the same spot – approximately 17 miles southwest of Garden City.

Since March 13, USGS revealed that there have been a staggering 311 tiny earthquakes in this region of Texas.

The US Geological Survey has reported that Texas has experienced several small earthquakes, including 16 in the first days of April alone

It continues to be a seismically active year for all of Texas, which has also seen record-setting quakes in the southern part of the state.

On March 10, a 3.0 magnitude earthquake struck less than 50 miles south of San Antonio.

Historically, earthquakes had been a rare event in South Texas, until this year.

On January 29, a near-historic magnitude 4.5 earthquake was felt in San Antonio, followed by a 3.6 tremor two days later.

The 4.5 earthquake was the third-strongest quake in South Texas history – behind a 4.8 magnitude earthquake in 2011 and a 4.7 quake in February 2024.

Seismic activity above 2.5 in magnitude can often be felt and cause minor damage.

As for what’s causing this earthquake swarm in West Texas, the answer may actually be man-made.

Odessa sits in the Permian Basin, a major oil and gas production region for the state. That area is also completely clear of major fault lines, like the ones in California that could cause major devastation.

West Texas has experience over 311 very small earthquakes since the middle of March, an area devoid of significant seismic fault lines

Cities like Odessa, Stanton, and Midland are all in the rich oil-drilling area which only has smaller faults that usually get discovered when oil activity ramps up.

Texas is the biggest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the US, based on an assessment of 2023 data by the US Energy Information Administration. 

The state is known for its extensive use of fracking, or the process of extracting oil and gas from deep underground by blasting large quantities of water, chemicals, and sand into rock formations to crack them open and release the fuels trapped inside.

Fracking is not usually the direct cause of an earthquake. It is actually the process of disposing wastewater produced through fracking that can trigger tremors.

This wastewater is injected into disposal wells that typically operate for longer periods of time and receive much more fluid than is injected into the ground during the fracking process, making them more likely to produce earthquakes, according to the USGS.

In President Trump’s most recent address to Congress, he said: ‘We have more liquid gold under our feet than any nation on earth… I fully authorize the most talented team ever assembled to go and get it… By unleashing American energy, we will defeat inflation and dramatically lower costs. It’s called drill baby drill.’

Dr Alexandros Savvaidis recently explained how more drilling could end up leading to more seismic activity in the state.

‘Deep injection wells, in particular, are linked to higher-magnitude earthquakes,’ Dr Savvaidis told KMID. ‘Whereas shallower injections seem to be less hazardous in terms of large seismic events.’

‘We don’t know yet if this aggressive drilling in the Permian Basin will create problems and increase the seismic risk. Maybe yes, maybe no. The key here…is that we have to monitor everything,’ Dr Savvaidis continued.

USGS noted that the largest earthquake known to be induced by hydraulic fracturing in the US was a magnitude 4.0 earthquake that occurred in 2018 in Texas.

To this point, only today’s 3.4 magnitude quake has come close to approaching that level of disturbance. 

A 2022 study by the University of Texas at Austin concluded that 68 percent of Texas quakes above magnitude 1.5 were ‘highly associated’ with oil and gas production.