For the third time in two weeks, Rangely residents were shaken by an early morning earthquake.
This one, registering 3.3 on the Richter scale, occurred early Wednesday morning about 2.5 miles northwest of town, the same general location as the previous two, which registered 3.7 and 2.6.
According to the Colorado Geological Survey, “Colorado has experienced numerous natural earthquakes, including a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in 1882. However, the state is world famous for its triggered (induced) earthquakes.” Rangely is included in that list of induced quakes. “In the 1970s, an experiment involving a waterflood at the Rangely oil field in northwest Colorado was the first time in human history that earthquakes were intentionally turned off and on, by varying the injection pressures of water underground.” (See bit.ly/2qAZ9Z2 for more.)