Important Takeaways:

• A magnitude 4.5 earthquake rocked southern Texas Wednesday night, striking nearly 45 miles southwest of the city of San Antonio.
• The US Geological Survey (USGS) detected the seismic event at 9:26pm CT near Falls City, measuring it at a depth of about 2.3 miles.
• The quake ranks as the third-strongest earthquake ever to hit South Texas, following a magnitude 4.8 quake in 2011 and a 4.7 quake in February 2024 that also hit near Falls City.
• Wednesday’s earthquake was followed by a magnitude 2.6 aftershock that struck 10.5 miles south-southeast of Stockdale, Texas around 1:17am Thursday.
• No damages or injuries have been reported from either of the quakes.
• But could be more tremors to come. The USGS predicted a 36 percent chance of magnitude 3 aftershocks following the main quake.
• The vast majority of earthquakes result from the constant movement of tectonic plates, which are massive, solid slabs of rock that make up the planetary surface and shift around on top of Earth’s mantle — the inner layer between the crust and core.
• When that stress overcomes the friction, the plates slip, causing a release of energy that ravels in waves through the Earth’s crust and generates the shaking we feel at the surface.
• But quakes of this size are quite unusual for the Lone Star State.
• Experts have not confirmed whether the magnitude 4.5 Falls City earthquake was linked to fracking, but this city is located in the Eagle Ford Shale area which is known for oil and gas production.

Read the original article by clicking here.