High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Induced seismicity refers to typically minor earthquakes and tremors that are caused by human activity that alters the stresses and strains on the Earth`s crust. Most induced seismicity is of an extremely low magnitude. A few sites regularly have larger quakes, such as The Geysers geothermal plant, which in the past 5 years has averaged 2 M4 events and 15 M3 events every year.