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Exxon and QatarEnergy’s new Golden Pass LNG facility is shown near the Texas state border in Port Arthur, Thursday, April 2, 2026.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
A graphic showing spikes of earthquake activity by the Texas and Louisiana border.<\/p>\n
Katherine Oung\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Drilling and natural fracking wells in the Haynesville shale in East Texas lead by Exxon Mobil and XO Energy on Tuesday, July 19, 2016.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Conley\/Staff photographer<\/p>\n
A record-breaking earthquake rattled western Louisiana<\/a> last month, drawing attention from Texas researchers and geologists.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scientists suspect the 4.9-magnitude temblor<\/a> in the Haynesville shale formation \u2014 a natural gas-rich area that straddles East Texas and Louisiana \u2014 was triggered by oil and gas operations.<\/p>\n The cause of the quake, believed to be the largest in Louisiana history, remains under investigation by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Energy and Natural Resources. USGS researchers attributed a series of earlier near-border earthquakes in the area to fracking and associated wastewater disposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n LNG DOMINANCE: New East Texas LNG facility is launching at \u2018the right time\u2019 as Iran war reshapes global gas markets<\/a><\/p>\n The earthquakes are a destabilizing force for the Haynesville shale area, where production has increased<\/a> in recent years as liquefied natural gas export facilities proliferated along the Gulf Coast<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n President Donald Trump has deepened interest in the area<\/a> by making American LNG a cornerstone<\/a> of his “energy dominance” plans. And Haynesville rig counts have nearly doubled over the last year.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The worsening earthquakes have puzzled researchers and scientists \u2014 even those well-versed in the science of oilfield tremors. Seismicity in the Haynesville formation is not as well studied as in the Permian Basin, where years of research established a link<\/a> between a rash of earthquakes and the disposal of oilfield wastewater.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNobody’s done a lot of studying in that area, because there just hasn’t been a lot of historic seismicity,\u201d said Laura Capper, principal of the consulting firm EnergyMakers Advisory Group and a director of the Produced Water Society. \u201cIt’s probably kind of new for even people that know what they’re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Without more research, determining the cause is a guessing game, Capper said. Her best guess: Natural gas extraction is triggering the subsurface trembling.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI’d say production could be as much of the culprit as anything else, just years of producing and removing fluids, and maybe it’s settling,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n