Arkansas Earthquakes

[stickmaker]

Back in the early Eighties, geologists running an experimental drill into a fault demonstrated they could increase earthquake activity by injecting water, and slow it by pumping the water out. This was widely hailed as a major discovery, with people speculating that it could be used to release stored strain in a controlled manner and head off devastating earthquakes. (IIRC, it turned out that most major faults are too deep to use this technique on.)

Recently, gas companies drilling in Arkansas were surprised that pumping millions of gallons of water into a gas shale formation is causing multiple earthquakes.

Are they completely ignorant in their supposed field of expertise?