SNYDER, Texas — More Texas earthquakes, including a 5.1-magnitude, happened Friday morning in the same area as a series of earthquakes that were felt earlier this week.
The initial and largest earthquake, which happened at 9:28 a.m. about 10 miles northeast of Hermleigh in West Texas, initially registered as a 4.8-magnitude, according to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data.
The USGS later upgraded the magnitude to 5.0, and then to a 5.1
Twelve minutes after the first earthquake, a second earthquake registered as a 3.8-magnitude, according to the USGS data.
A third earthquake happened about an hour later and registered as a 2.7-magnitude.
The 5.1-magnitude earthquake was similar in size to the 4.9 that was felt across West Texas and into parts of North Texas on Monday night. Both earthquakes were on the higher end of what Texas experiences with earthquakes, though some in recent years have exceeded a 5.0-magnitude.
Numerous social media users were reporting that they also felt Friday's earthquake in North Texas, about three hours east of the earthquake's location in Hermleigh.
There were no initial reports of injuries or damage.
The Hermleigh area has seen a cluster of earthquakes in recent weeks. Researchers have also noticed an uptick in earthquakes in that area and have attributed that to a form of oil drilling known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The disposal of wastewater involved with fracking has led to a rise in earthquakes in Texas, researchers have found.
In 2023, there were 2,493 earthquakes that registered a 2.0-magnitude or higher on the Richter scale in Texas, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin.
These numbers were similar to those of 2022 when Texas saw 2,601 earthquakes of at least a 2.0-magnitude.
But they are also more than double the amount in seen 2020, and eight times the amount in 2017 -- all according to the bureau, which tracks Texas earthquakes through the TexNet Earthquake Catalog.
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