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ByAliciaChang TheAssociatedPress LOS ANGELES New re- search suggests oil drill- ing decades ago may have triggered earthquakes in the Los Angeles region, in- cluding the 1933 quake that killed more than 100 peo- ple. If confirmed, it would be the first time oil opera- tions have been linked to a deadly quake in the United States. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey combed through historical re- cords and identified sev- eral quakes in the 1920s and 1930s that were po- tentially caused by indus- try activities, including the 1933 magnitude 6.4 jolt that struck the port city of Long Beach. Until now, "we pretty much assumed that earth- quakes in the LA area are natural and that induced earthquakes are either not happening or not signifi- cant," said USGS seismol- ogist Sue Hough, who led the study. Drilling techniques have changed through the de- cades so the findings don't necessarily point to a cur- rent risk. A separate study last year by a team at USGS and California Institute of Technology found no sig- nificant evidence of human- caused quakes in the LA re- gion after 1935. Man-made quakes have been in the spotlight after a sharp uptick in seismic activity in Oklahoma and Texas. Studies have linked the spike to the practice of injecting leftover wastewa- ter into the ground after drilling for oil and gas us- ing newer technologies such as hydraulic fracturing. The induced quakes have rattled nerves and caused property damage, but no deaths. Southern California's oil boom was sparked in 1892 when oil was discovered near what would become the site of Dodger Stadium, north of downtown LA. Af- ter tapping the wells dry, drillers headed to points south, including Santa Fe Springs, Inglewood, Tor- rance and Long Beach. In the study, Hough and colleague Morgan Page pieced together a list of quakes between 1915 and the early 1930s, and re- viewed oil permits and drilling operations dur- ing that time period. They found 13 cases of shaking that may have been caused by oil production ramping up. The Long Beach quake hit not long after operators began drilling wells at dif- ferent angles, the research- ers said. Some 115 people died and many schools col- lapsed, spurring new laws requiring stricter building standards for new schools and retrofitting of old ones. The findings appear in Tuesday's edition of the Bulletin of the Seismologi- cal Society of America. "They have certainly raised the possibility that these earthquakes could have been induced, but it's difficult with the lack of observations to defin- itively say these were in- duced earthquakes," said Bill Barnhart, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Iowa who had no role in the research. Deadly quakes triggered by oil and gas drilling are rare. In 1984, a magnitude 7 quake in Uzbekistan linked to gas extraction killed one person and injured 100. Oil recovery techniques have changed through the years. In the early 20th cen- tury, oil was sucked out of the ground and that some- times caused the ground to sink. Beginning in the 1940s, operators would flood water into reservoirs to drive out oil. Earlier this year, Cliff Frohlich, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, found that human-caused quakes from oil and gas operations in Texas have been happen- ing since 1925, much earlier than previously thought. In recent years, the increased shaking in Texas has been linked to the injection of wastewater deep under- ground. The possible connection between past LA quakes and oil activity sounds "plausible" and should be investigated further, said Frohlich, who was not part of the latest study. CALIFORNIA St ud y: D ri ll in g ma y ha ve c au se d de ad ly 1 93 3 qu ak e U.S.GEOLOGICALSURVEY The ruins of Long Beach Polytechnic High School are seen a er a massive earthquake in 1933. T.J. MAHER — U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY The ruins of St. Anthony's Church in Long Beach are seen a er a massive earthquake struck in 1933. By Nicholas K. Geranios The Associated Press SPOKANE,WASH. The west- ern United States set re- cords for low winter snow- pack levels in 2015, and a new report blames high temperatures rather than low precipitation levels, ac- cording to a new study. Greenhouse gases appear to be a major contributor to the high temperatures, ac- cording to the study pub- lished Monday in the jour- nal Geophysical Research Letters. Scientists looked at snow- measurement sites in Cal- ifornia, Oregon, Washing- ton, western Nevada and western Idaho. They found that in 2015, more than 80 percent of those sites expe- rienced record low snow- pack levels as a result of much warmer-than-aver- age temperatures. Most of the previous re- cords were set in 1977, a drought year, said Philip Mote, lead author of the study and director of the Oregon Climate Change Re- search Institute at Oregon State University. "The 2015 snowpack sea- son was an extreme year," Mote said. "But because of the increasing influence of greenhouse gases, years like this may become common- place over the next few de- cades." Winter snowpack in the mountains is important in the arid West because the melting snow provides pre- cious water in dry months. The snow drought last win- ter led the governors of Cal- ifornia, Oregon and Wash- ington to order reductions in water use. California has been in a drought since 2011. Ore- gon and Washington expe- rienced much higher-than- average temperatures dur- ing the 2014-15 winter, but they were not as dry overall asCalifornia,thereportsaid. "The story of 2015 was really the exceptional warmth," said Dennis Lettenmaier of the Uni- versity of California at Los Angeles, co-author of the study. "Historically, droughts in the West have mostly been associated with dry win- ters, and only secondarily with warmth," Lettenma- ier said. But in 2015, "the primary driver of the re- cord low snow packs was the warm winter." For 111 of the snow-mea- surement stations in the region, the April 1 reading was zero for the first time ever, essentially indicating that there was no snow left, the study found. The over- all snowpack level on April 1 in California and Oregon was 90 percent below aver- age, the report found. WEATHER Study blames low 2015 Western snowpack on high temperatures By Bruce Smith The Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. As two high profile cases with ra- cial overtones get under- way in Charleston, commu- nity leaders are calling on the city to again show unity and refrain from violence. Jury selection began Monday in the trial of Mi- chael Slager, a former police officer accused of murder in theshootingdeathofWalter Scott as he ran from a traf- fic stop in April 2015. If con- victed, Slager, who is white and 34 years old, faces 30 years to life imprisonment. The shooting was captured on video by a bystander and seen widely via the internet. Separately, jury selec- tion resumes next week in the federal trial of Dylann Roof, a 22-year-old white man who is on trial for the June 2015 slayings of nine black parishioners during a Bible study at a Charles- ton church. Neither shooting was fol- lowed by civil unrest — un- likeothercitiesexperiencing tensionsbetweenblackcom- munities and the police de- partments that patrol them — and Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg wants to keep it that way. Tecklenburg says that while both trials present a challenge, they also of- fer an opportunity for the city to "show the world a community that is united in the belief that love con- quers hate, a belief in the justice system that it can work, a belief in our com- munity that we will come together and stay together no matter." The city opened its emer- gency operations center on Monday and will keep it open during the two trials. Tecklenburg appealed for a repeat of the calm that fol- lowed last year's shootings. James Johnson, the pres- ident of the South Carolina chapter of the National Ac- tion Network, said others who may be thinking of coming to the area to agi- tate should stay away. Jury selection is also be- ing held this week in a simi- lar case in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ray Tensing is charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter in the July 2015 shooting of Sam Du- Bose, who was pulled over for a missing license plate. In the South Carolina case, Scott was pulled over for having a broken tail- light. Slager's attorneys say there is far more to the story than the short video clip of the shooting, which was taken by a bystander and then seen around the world via the internet. The clip in its entirety, the at- torneys, also shows a strug- gle between the two men before the shooting and Slager warning Scott that he will shoot. FATAL SHOOTINGS Mayor: Trials can let Charleston show unity GRACE BEAHM — THE POST AND COURIER, FILE Former North Charleston police office Michael Slager, is lead into court, in Charleston, S.C. JOHN MINCHILLO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Ray Tensing exits Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Megan Shanahan's courtroom following the first day of the jury selection process for his murder trial in Cincinnati. 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