Fault Line
Your earthquake wasn't natural. Here's who drilled the hole that caused it — with maps, data, and receipts.
Consumer-facing induced seismicity accountability — correlating earthquake clusters with specific wastewater injection wells, operator leaderboards, proximity blame maps, injection volume trend analysis, and weekly "swarm reports" that name the companies, the wells, and the volumes — all auto-generated by mashing together USGS seismic data with state oil & gas commission injection well records.
Niche Explored
Induced seismicity / man-made earthquakes — consumer-facing accountability journalism tracking earthquakes caused by oil & gas wastewater injection and hydraulic fracturing. Correlating seismic events with specific wells, operators, and injection volumes. Turning raw government seismic + injection data into beautiful, hyperlocal, opinionated earthquake blame maps.
Existing Competition
- USGS Earthquake Map (earthquake.usgs.gov) — raw data, no consumer voice, no injection well correlation, no accountability angle. Government tool.
- TexNet (texnet.beg.utexas.edu) — Texas-specific seismic catalog. Academic, not consumer-facing. No blame attribution.
- Temblor (temblor.net) — earthquake hazard app focused on property risk. Does NOT focus on induced seismicity accountability.
- Oklahoma Geological Survey — publishes data, not consumer journalism.
- EarthquakeTrack.com — basic earthquake list, no induced seismicity analysis.
- CRITICAL GAP: Nobody is systematically correlating earthquake clusters with specific injection well permits, operators, and volumes in a public, beautiful, consumer-facing format. The data exists in separate silos (USGS earthquakes + state oil/gas commission injection data) but nobody mashes them together for the public.
Data Sources Found
Primary — Seismic Events
- USGS FDSN Event API —
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/query— FREE, unlimited, GeoJSON/CSV/KML, real-time. Full historic catalog. Parameters: lat/lon bounding box, magnitude, date range. Updated every few minutes. - USGS Real-time GeoJSON Feeds —
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/summary/all_week.geojson— Pre-built hourly/daily/weekly/monthly feeds. ~2,500 quakes/week globally. - TexNet Earthquake Catalog —
https://catalog.texnet.beg.utexas.edu/— Texas-specific seismic events since 2017. API endpoint available. - EMSC (Euro-Med Seismological Centre) —
https://www.seismicportal.eu/fdsn-wsevent.html— European/Mediterranean seismic data via FDSN API. - IRIS/NSF SAGE —
https://ds.iris.edu/ds/nodes/dmc/services/— Seismological data services, waveforms, station metadata.
Secondary — Injection Well Data (for correlation)
- FracFocus —
https://fracfocus.org/— National hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure registry. Full SQL data download available for free. Well locations, operators, chemicals, dates. - Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) — Injection well permits, volumes, pressure data. Public records.
- Oklahoma Corporation Commission — Injection well data, seismicity response actions, well shut-ins.
- EPA Underground Injection Control (UIC) — Class II well data (oil/gas related injection).
- Kansas Corporation Commission — Injection well permits for southern Kansas seismicity zone.
Tertiary — Academic & Context
- OpenAlex API —
https://api.openalex.org/works?search=induced+seismicity— 536+ recent papers on induced seismicity since 2024. Free. - USGS Induced Earthquakes page —
https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/science/induced-earthquakes— USGS’s own research program on human-caused earthquakes.
SEO Analysis
- “man made earthquakes” — moderate search volume, low-competition long-tail
- “fracking earthquakes” — high search intent, politically charged, lots of interest
- “Oklahoma earthquakes caused by” — high local interest
- “Texas earthquakes Permian Basin” — growing fast since 2020
- “wastewater injection earthquakes” — low competition, high specificity
- “induced seismicity map” — almost no good consumer results
- “earthquake near me caused by oil” — zero good results, huge opportunity
- Keyword gap: People search for this constantly but find only academic papers, government PDFs, or partisan opinion pieces. Nobody has beautiful, data-driven, location-specific accountability content.
Communities
- r/oklahoma (~200K members) — frequent earthquake posts, people are angry and confused
- r/texas (~1M+) — growing concern about Permian Basin seismicity
- r/geology — academic interest
- r/environment — broader audience
- Oklahoma earthquake Facebook groups — large, active, highly engaged
- Twitter/X #OKquake — active during swarms
- Earthquake-prone communities: Oklahoma City, Cushing OK, Midland-Odessa TX, Pecos TX, Youngstown OH, Raton NM
Image/Graphic Feasibility
- Excellent. This is a MAP-FIRST niche.
- Cluster maps: earthquake swarms overlaid on injection well locations
- Time-lapse animations of seismicity spreading as injection increases
- Heatmaps of seismic energy release by county
- “Blame radius” maps showing which wells are nearest to earthquake clusters
- Operator leaderboards with styled scorecards
- Before/after historical seismicity comparisons (Oklahoma: 2 quakes/year → 900+/year)
- Can auto-generate all with D3.js, MapLibre GL, Observable Plot, or deck.gl
- AI-generated editorial illustrations (worried houses, anthropomorphized fault lines) for personality
Sources
- https://earthquake.usgs.gov/fdsnws/event/1/
- https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/geojson.php
- https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/science/induced-earthquakes
- https://texnet.beg.utexas.edu/
- https://catalog.texnet.beg.utexas.edu/
- https://fracfocus.org/
- https://www.seismicportal.eu/fdsn-wsevent.html
- https://ds.iris.edu/ds/nodes/dmc/services/
- https://api.openalex.org/works?search=induced+seismicity