NORMAN, Oklahoma (Reuters) – Seismologist Austin Holland wants to start an earthquake. From his office a few feet below the earth’s surface – a basement at the University of Oklahoma in Norman – Holland, who tracks quakes for the Oklahoma Geological Survey, is digging into a complex riddle: Is a dramatic rise in the size and number of quakes in his state related to oil and gas production activity? And, if so, what can be done to stop it? As part of his wide-ranging research, Holland is proposing to inject pressurized water into porous rock in an area already known to be earthquake-prone, to see whether injections of oil industry wastewater are contributing to a “swarm” of earthquakes rocking the state. “This is a dramatic new rate of seismicity,” Holland said in an interview. “We can’t guarantee the earthquakes aren’t a coincidence (unrelated to oil and gas work),” he […]