Once you put some thought into it, its pretty easy to see where there is good reason for the drilling to be affecting this.
www.conservation.ca.gov...
Information there about what the oil is replaced with, usually water and brine byproducts of the drilling. Also found about pollution being pumped in
too but thats a bit OT.
en.wikipedia.org...
and the tectonic plates move because heat dissipation.
So my theory here is that YES we are affecting these earthquakes by replacing the oil with water. Oil has a much higher boiling point than water.
It's all fine to have the water there until it heats up and boils, expanding more than oil would have done. The heat would definately dissipate
faster and more destructively if water were its conductor. Im not saying there isnt natural forms of water that do the same thing, but I think the
balance is getting just a little upset here.
Theory would be that if we extracted all the oil and replaced it with water, it would be a similarly catastrophic result if you replaced the oil in
your car with salt water.