The City Council of Cleburne Texas is hiring a geology consultant to study if natural gas drilling is causing the first recorded earthquakes in a 140-year history of the town.

Since the beginning of June four earthquakes below a magnitude of 2.8 have been recorded.

We haven't had a quake in recorded history, and all the sudden you drill and there are earthquakes, Mayor Ted Reynolds said according to the Associated Press today.

The council is concerned about a drilling technique called fracking in which high-pressure water streams are injected into the ground, it fractures the layers of shale and makes the rock release natural gas trapped in it.

Earthquake Energy