West Texas saw a dramatic increase in earthquakes, jumping from 19 in 2009 to 1,600 in 2017 alone, according to a study published in 2019 by the University of Texas at Austin. .
The study, which was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, tracked nearly 20 years of seismic activity, the Texas Tribune reported.
The scientists documented more than 7,000 earthquakes near Pecos, Texas starting in 2009, most of them so small that no one felt them. .