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Earth

Humans may be to blame for a big earthquake in South Korea

By Andy Coghlan

26 April 2018

New Scientist Default Image

A pier damaged by the November 2017 Pohang earthquake

Yonhap / Newcom / Alamy Live News

South Korea’s most damaging earthquake for a century may have been man-made. Two investigations both conclude that the quake was caused by injections of water deep underground, as part of a project to harness geothermal energy.

The findings also suggest that seismologists’ method for estimating how big an earthquake might be caused by pumping water underground is dangerously flawed.

Several dozen people were hurt and many buildings damaged in Pohang by the magnitude-5.5 quake in November last year. It was…

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