Louisiana has never been known for earthquakes. Most in the United States occur along fault lines on the West Coast or on the islands of Hawaii. But since December 2025, a string of earthquakes has rocked northern Louisiana.  

Louisiana called on Tulane University professor and geoscientist Cynthia Ebinger to research the causes of these natural disasters. 

Ebinger, the Marshall-Heape Chair in Geology at Tulane, has always enjoyed the outdoors. She studied oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, where she earned her Ph.D. and became more interested in fault lines and volcanoes. After some time traveling on ships and studying the ocean, she received a job offer from Tulane.

“I was encouraged to come and apply for an endowed chair,” Ebinger said. “So, I came here a little over nine years ago, and I’m a very happy Tulanian and New Orleanian.” 

Ebinger leads Tulane’s Geophysics and Active Tectonics Research Lab, which studies the forces that shape tectonic plate boundaries. Her broader research spans volcanic and tectonic processes in continental rifts.  

“We were looking at an area in North Island, New Zealand, where the plates are coming apart, and a new ocean is forming,” Ebinger said.  

Now, in Coushatta, a town in Northwest Louisiana, more earthquakes are occurring. Ebinger, working with the state of Louisiana and the U.S. Geological Survey, went up to install equipment to monitor these strong quakes.  

“There are folks living in mobile homes, and they felt it really strongly,” Ebinger said. “The vehicles basically vibrated, so lots of folks knew what was happening.” 

As for what’s causing these earthquakes, Ebinger said she thinks it is complicated. 

“Louisiana’s northwestern [region saw] fairly large-scale hydraulic fracturing with also wastewater injection … that’s been going on for about 15 years in this state,” Ebinger said. “Natural processes would build up stresses, maybe over 100 million years, and then you have an earthquake.”