More than 500 earthquakes strike north of Milford in two weeks
Mar 5, 2024, 11:23 AM
Seismometers located at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations are pictured in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. (Mengshin Lin/Deseret News)
(Mengshin Lin/Deseret News)
MILFORD, Utah — More than 500 earthquakes have hit near Milford in the last two weeks, according to data from the University of Utah Seismograph Station. However, the earthquakes aren’t worrying seismologists.
“It’s not a cause for concern,” said Katherine Whidden, a research scientist from the University of Utah Seismograph Station.
According to Whidden, the earthquakes near Milford are being caused by drilling into the earth for geothermal energy production.
“These are expected, they are part of the process. You can’t get the heat out of the earth without causing these little earthquakes,” Whidden said.
She said geothermal energy production generates small earthquakes just like coal mining does.
“This is just part of developing the geothermal resource,” Whidden said. “It generates these really small earthquakes. People don’t feel them at the surface and there are measures in place to make sure they stay small.”
All of the earthquakes have been relatively small at a 2.7 magnitude or below.
Whidden said there is nothing to worry about because they are not expected to get any bigger.
