There have been a lot of earthquakes in the Dallas area. Many of the producers at Mercury Studios have been posting on social media how they felt their chairs rock this morning when the latest one hit, a 2.7-magnitude earthquake. Its been a little unnerving for the everyone, but the real surprise has been the rush to place the blame on fracking.
"Yesterday here in Irving, we had nine earthquakes. Nine. At 7:37, we had a 2.3. At 3:10, we had a 3.5. That one I felt. And it was bizarre. I mean, it felt like we were on top of a Subway. I was actually -- I was actually if the makeup room getting ready for the TV show and I looked down at the floor because I hear this rumble and I look down and I said what the hell are we doing in the basement. I realized we don't have a basement. And I mean, it was a little spooky. All the lights up above were swinging," Glenn said.
There is also speculation the quakes might be related to hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," an energy extraction technique that has a long history in north Texas.
Irving, headquarters of Exxon Mobil's XTO unit that helped pioneer hydraulic fracturing in the region, has two gas wells that were fracked in 2010, according to city officials.
"The U.S. Geological Survey tends to disagree with that," Stu said. "They say that USGS studies do not suggest the hydraulic fracking causes the increased rate of earthquakes. They do give this, which I think is interesting. Scientists have found, however, that at some locations, the increase in seismicity coincides with the injection of wastewater into deep disposal wells. Reason translates that as fracking may well cause rumbling in and around areas where the water is used and it is disposed of, but it doesn't have a connection to the increase in earthquakes that people are talking about"
"Let me translate that," Glenn said.
"Translate my translation," Stu joked.
"Fracking, you know, pushes a bunch of water into the ground. And moving that water causes rumbles. So if I may translate, it would be like you stand, if you live in a duplex or split level house, you standing in your bedroom and the garage door underneath opens up and you'd be saying, the garage door is causing an earthquake. No, the garage door is causing a rumbling but that's different than an earthquake," Glenn said.
"Right."
Glenn plans to do a show this week on the earthquakes and speak with an expert on whether or not fracking could be contributing to the recent quakes.