However, OGS also studies of non-fuel mineral resources, such as: clays, shales, limestone and dolomites, crushed stone, copper, bentonite, salt, gypsum, uranium, helium, and iodine.

[7] The article noted that the observatory, which had been built by a subsidiary of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey in 1961, had later been used by the U. S. Government to monitor nuclear tests, before it was acquired by OGS.

Andrews added that a slowdown in internet speeds near the remote location had also reduced the value of the observatory in performing the OGS mission, and that the activities would improve only by moving them to the main facility at Norman, Oklahoma.

[8] Most of these were low-magnitude (less than 3.0 on the moment magnitude scale), caused little physical damage and occurred in lightly populated rural areas of north central Oklahoma.

[9] As more earth scientists began exchanging information, suspicion grew that some of the new techniques that have been developed to recover the last traces of crude oil and natural gas from nearly exhausted formations.

Many began to believe that the injection of very high pressure waste water into underground formations, a process called "fracking" might be at least partially responsible for many of the quakes.

It noted that in the previous fall, the Republican governor had dismissed the idea in a public speech, stating that claims of such a relationship were only speculation and that more study was needed.

[8] After the OGS issued its statement in April, 2015, the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association (OOGA), again disputed its conclusions and repeated that more study is needed.