to answer the question. There may be similar information in other questions.
A group of students live in a town in Oklahoma. The town did not have frequent
earthquakes in the past. However, in the last
few years the town has started to
have multiple earthquakes a day. The students
wonder how they can use evidence
to identify the cause of the earthquakes and if
they can prevent the
earthquakes from happening
One student claims that removing oil from the ground caused the increase in
earthquakes. Another student suggests
that the events are related, but some other
unknown factor caused the earthquakes. The students
find information about oll
drilling and earthquakes in the area.
Number of Earthquakes per Year
1000
900
800
700
600
Oklahoma Earthquakes Magnitude 10 and Greater
M-magnitude
30 quakes M40-47,
20 M40-51
15 quakes M40-44
500
6 quakes M40-43
400
Fakes M40-46
300
200
100 -1.6yr
3 quakes MED-4
1qS7
R600
GOLDE
~1002
soor
9002
-2002
000
1000
coo
Year
www
PLOR
Oil Drilling in Oklahoma: Timeline
1897-O exploration starts
1984-Oil production peaks and
then starts
to decline.
1996-People first use injected
carbon dioxide on a large
scale to remove oil.
1997-Use of fracking to remove
oil increases
2005 Horizontal wells become
more common than vertical
wells in some areas.
2008 Regulations allow oil
producers to inject
increased amounts of
oil-drilling wastewater.
2015 Oklahoma reduces the
amount of wastewater
producers can inject into
certain layers of rock.
Which two pieces of data best support the claim that
removing
oil is not the direct cause of the earthquakes?
A. There were 3 earthquakes in 2002 and 2006
B. There were few earthquakes per year
until
2009.
c. There were 30 earthquakes larger than
magnitude 4 in 2015.
D. Oil production peaked in Oklahoma in 1984 and
then began to decline.
E. Horizontal wells became more common than
vertical wells in some places in 2005.