Deadly Texas Plant Explosion Registered as Seismic Event

A chemical fire and explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant near Waco Wednesday (April 17) evening could be felt 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers) away, according to news reports. Estimates suggest the fire and explosion killed five to 15 individuals, injuring at least 180 others.

The blast registered as the equivalent of a 2.1-magnitude seismic event, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Witnesses said it burned buildings, flattened homes, blew out windows and even killed a neighbor's pet dog.

Officials are treating the blast site as a crime scene. "We are not indicating that it is a crime but we don't know," said Sgt. William Patrick Swanton of the Waco Police Department, according to Good Morning America. "What that means to us is that until we know that it is an industrial accident we will work it as a crime scene. ATF [the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] is conducting the main investigation."

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Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.