Could the rush for lithium near the Salton Sea trigger earthquakes?
Just after midnight on April 30, residents near the Salton Sea were jolted awake by a magnitude 4.3 earthquake. … Anytime there’s a swarm of earthquakes in their community locals can’t help but think about the steam billowing from a dozen geothermal power plants that have sprung up along the Salton Sea’s southeastern shore over the past four decades. They wonder, could decades of drilling thousands of feet into the Earth’s crust and pumping out boiling brine to make renewable energy be causing some of these quakes? And could drilling and testing in the area by companies rushing to extract lithium needed for electric vehicle batteries be increasing the risk?