Did fracking cause the East Coast quake?

At first blush, the "fracking" theory of the East Coast quake seems nuts. But this piece is written to a fairly high standard, and the tone is level-headed. I'm not saying that the theory is correct; I'm saying that this idea seems worth investigating.

I think it's really hard to deny there's a connection when the frequency of Arkansas earthquakes dropped by two-thirds when the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission banned fracking...

Of course, correlation is not causation -- that is, not necessarily causation.



A personal note about the quake. Living on the west coast, I always had the possibility of an earthquake whispering in the back of my mind: "Wouldn't want to be in that building during a quake..." "Wouldn't want to be under that bridge during a quake..." "Wouldn't want to be in one of the Bonaventure's elevators during a quake..." And so on. It wasn't a fear. (I rather enjoy earthquakes, actually.) It was just a thought. Always there, everywhere I went.



After moving east, those whispers remained in my head for the first couple of months: "The McHenry tunnel is amazing, but I wouldn't want to be there during a quake..." That was the instinctive first thought. Then came the second thought: We don't get earthquakes out here.



Eventually, the second thought conquered the first, and I forgot about earthquakes altogether, for the first time since 1971.



And now...now, that first thought is back, fluttering and scuttling in the back of my mind. Everywhere I go.