Fault Lines

Earthquake State

Fault Lines travels to Oklahoma to find out what, or who, is to blame for the state’s daily earthquakes.

Earthquakes have become a daily occurrence in Oklahoma, which has replaced California as the most seismically active part of the United States.

For Oklahomans, long hardened to such natural disasters as tornadoes, earthquakes are a new and startling development.

Scientific evidence that Oklahoma’s earthquakes are man-made, however, has been met by a climate of denial by politicians and industrialists.

The underground disposal of waste water from oil and gas drilling has been cited as the chief culprit for the dramatic increase in state seismic activity, yet the wells remain largely unregulated.

Fault Lines travels to Oklahoma to learn why these earthquakes persist, to witness the human consequences, to question elected officials and the relevant regulatory body, and to hold the local oil and gas industry to account.