State of stress in Texas: Implications for induced seismicity

Compilation of almost 200 new maximum horizontal stress (SHmax) orientations in Texas reveals a complex intraplate stress field. A large extensional stress province is associated with extensive growth faulting from northeastern Mexico to Louisiana. SHmax is subparallel to the coastline, following the strikes of the growth faults. In contrast, we observe a strike‐slip/normal faulting regime with SHmax approximately E‐W in much of west Texas and the Texas Panhandle, similar to the stress fields observed in northeast New Mexico and north‐central Oklahoma. Within the Fort Worth Basin in northeast Texas, SHmax is NNE‐SSW. The faulting regime transitions from strike‐slip/normal faulting in the northern part of the basin to normal faulting with subequal horizontal principal stress magnitudes further south. Recent sites of apparently injection‐related seismicity near Snyder/Cogdell (west Texas), Karnes City/Fashing (south Texas), the Dallas‐Fort Worth metroplex, and Timpson (east Texas) involves fault slip compatible with local stress fields.