Ohio has experienced a surge in earthquakes in recent years, an uptick that corresponds with an increase in fracking in the state, according to a new analysis.

The Columbus Dispatch looked at data from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and found that, between 1950 and 2009, Ohio saw an average of two greater than 2.0 magnitude earthquakes each year. Between 2010 and 2014, when fracking operations began to take off in the state, that number jumped to an average of nine per year.

That’s an uptick in earthquakes that’s been mirrored nationally, the analysis found. Between 2010 and 2012, the U.S. experienced an average of 100 magnitude 3.0 or higher earthquakes each year, compared to the 21 the country experienced each year between 1967 and 2000.

The analysis was prompted by a spate of earthquakes over the last few weeks in Ohio. Last week, five earthquakes were recorded in a 25-hour period near the town of Poland Township in Mahoning County, Ohio, an area that before a few years ago hadn’t seen a sizable earthquake in 100 years, according to the Columbus Dispatch. The earthquakes prompted a shutdown of a nearby fracking operation while scientists work to figure out whether the operation […]