GREELEY - Researchers from the University of Colorado-Boulder have put seismic monitors around Weld County to measure aftershocks in the hopes of discovering just what caused the May 31 earthquake.
It was the first quake there in decades and the first that most people can remember. The goal is to pinpoint the exact epicenter of the quake, both in terms of depth and location on a map.
"This earthquake is so unique. It's in such a unique location that we'd want to study it no matter what," CU researcher William Yeck said.
He says fracking, injecting wastewater deep underground, could be responsible for the earthquake, but it's way too early to make that conclusion.
"To people who think wastewater injection caused the earthquake, I'd say we don't have enough data at the time to make a claim one way or the other," Yeck said.
He says wastewater injection was responsible for a series of quakes north of Denver in the 60s and 70s.
Research in Weld County could continue for a month or more. It could take at least a year to reach a definitive conclusion about the cause of the earthquake.
(KUSA-TV © 2014 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
