Oklahoma goes from two 3.0 quakes a year to two a day

You know what kind of house survives earthquakes? Good old fashioned log cabins.

I can imagine ... :-) ...

Quix knows the answer to this but he’s not talking. Not here anyway.

What?! Are we having an increase in UFO activity in Oklahoma? ... :-) ...

>"releasing it IF doing ANYTHING...at all."

Better to let it out and burn it in small increments than to let it lie waiting for an eruption to send it all skyward at once!

Keeping up with quakes: Officials meet public in Medford
http://www.enidnews.com/news/keeping-up-with-quakes-officials-meet-public-in-medford/article_52e4c136-d434-11e4-9232-3bdfa0279ddc.html

MEDFORD, Okla. — Tuesday’s swarm of earthquakes set the stage for Wednesday’s town hall meeting in Medford.

More than 100 Oklahomans, mostly from the northwest portion of the state, gathered to hear from Oklahoma Geological Survey and the Oil and Gas Division of Oklahoma Corporation Commission about the what has Oklahoma shaking at the knees.

Tim Baker, director of the oil and gas division, said OCC has modified the way it looks at areas with seismic activity, labeling them as areas of interest.

AOI were defined, until a few weeks ago, as a six-mile radius around a 4.0 or greater earthquake, plus other seismic activity. OCC would inspect wastewater disposal wells in those AOI and if it found an operator had drilled too deep, the operator had to fix the issue.

Wastewater disposal wells have been linked in studies to the increase in seismic activity in Oklahoma.

“What we realized was the process was moving too slow,” Baker said. “The seismic activity is greatly exceeding the pace at which we can keep up.

“So we redefined our AOI. Instead of just looking at 4.0s, we started looking at swarms.”

Baker defined an earthquake swarm as at least two quakes with epicenters within .25 miles of each other, with at least one quake measuring 3.0 magnitude or greater, with the same 6-mile radius.

“This greatly expanded our AOI,” he said. “We are trying to incorporate as many wells as we can, based on the seismicity of the area.”

Some Arbuckle disposal wells, which are the deepest in the state, are in the new AOI, Baker said.

The commission sent out a letter last week to about 92 operators, with about 350 Arbuckle wells in the new AOI, informing them of the new AOI and requiring them to send in data proving the wells do not go deep enough to come in contact with the crystalline basement layer rock.

Operators have until April 18 to prove they are not in contact with the basement layer.

Operators found to be in contact with the basement layer must plug back: pull out the tubing and pump cement into the bottom portion of the hole so there is no connection with the basement layer.

Operators who appear to be in contact with that layer and do not have an approve plugging plan must cut production by 50 percent.

In spite of this improved system of monitoring wastewater disposal wells, which seismologists broadly agree are the cause of the increased seismic activity, tensions ran high at Medford’s meeting.

Bob Jackman, a longtime independent geologist and former operator from Tulsa, asked why members of the panel didn’t resign so more qualified individuals could take their places.

“You have had five years… and the findings are: we can do nothing but be prepared for a big, bad earthquake,” he said. “My question is, shouldn’t you resign and let someone else do a better job? You don’t have anything to show.”

Jackman went on to ask, with the increase in seismic activity, and considering that the state is on track to have 800 to 900 earthquakes in a year, where was the success in researching the cause?

Matt Skinner, OCC spokesman, said everyone is working hard to understand what is behind the quakes.

“Have we found the source of the earthquakes? No,” he said. “Have we made progress? Yes. Even if the earthquakes stop tomorrow, we would certainly not consider it a success and stop the efforts to find out.

“I wish we could say the end is in sight, but it’s not, and we aren’t going to stop until it is.”

Questions about the durability of deep injection wells, groundwater safety, property damage and more floated around.

Shari England, of Medford, asked about the sudden rise in activity.

“We have been in oil and gas all our lives, and we didn’t see the earthquakes in the’ 80s,” she said. “We see them now. Is the reason because of the high volume of water being injected?”

Austin Holland, a seismologist with Oklahoma Geological Survey, said there could be a correlation.

“The areas that are seeing the greatest earthquake activity are also the areas seeing the greatest density of disposal wells,” he said. “It’s speculative to say we’re looking at some cumulative effect. We can’t demonstrate that totally with science, but clearly we can say things are well beyond anything that would be in the normal likelihood.

“It’s easy to begin to speculate, but as far as demonstrating stuff, we know that something has changed, and we know the density of disposal wells has changed.

“We are certainly trying to understand how to mitigate the hazards so we can provide that information to the Corporation Commission so the appropriate action can be taken.”

Holland did not deny the increase in seismic activity has been sudden and shocking.

“In Oklahoma, in the last four days, we have roughly seen three decades of normal seismic activity,” he said. “In 2014, we had more than 100 years of what we would consider normal Oklahoma seismicity.”

The rise since 1980 has been alarming: between 1980 and 2009, Oklahoma averaged two earthquakes registering at 3.0 magnitude; in 2009 the number jumped to 40 per year. Also, 2014 saw 585 quakes over 3.0, and this year there have been 205 so far.

Governor’s Office, Oklahoma Geological Survey acknowledge disposal wells likely cause of earthquakes
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capitol_report/governor-s-office-oklahoma-geological-survey-acknowledge-disposal-wells-likely/article_8f6203fd-c7a9-5d38-a0b1-ab020c655d86.html

Governor’s Office, Oklahoma Geological Survey acknowledge disposal wells likely cause of earthquakes.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Mary Fallin and the two state agencies most closely investigating Oklahoma’s recent spate of earthquakes said Tuesday those tremors probably have been caused by injection wells used to dispose of wastewater that is a byproduct of hydraulic fracturing and other forms of oil and gas exploration.

“The Oklahoma Geological Survey considers it very likely that the majority of recent earthquakes … are triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells,” the OGS said in a report issued Tuesday.

At the same time, Gov. Mary Fallin’s office issued a press release acknowledging the OGS report and announcing the creation of a state-operated website called earthquakes.ok.gov to address the issue.

The OGS and Fallin have previously shied away from blaming the increased seismicity in the state on fracturing or injection wells.

A spokesman for Fallin said the governor “does not believe the increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma can be explained by natural causes.”

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the state’s 4,200 injection wells and most aspects of the oil and gas industry, promptly praised the OGS report.

The OGS findings, said Commission spokesman Matt Skinner, “have already served as key components in the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s evolving approach to the issue of triggered seismicity.”

Significantly, though, OGS said it cannot identify which wells cause which earthquakes.

The high density of injection wells in central and north-central Oklahoma combined with the high permeabilites within the Arbuckle makes identifying relationships between specific wells and seismic activity difficult, the report says.

The Arbuckle is a crystalline “basement” stratum of rock underlying the entire state.

The OGS report said it believes the increased seismic activity is caused by the injection of oil and gas wastewater into this rock.

“Those earthquakes listed on the charts at the top of this thread are the ones of Magnitude 3.0 and above ... :-) ...”

Yes, but all of the stories I’ve been reading in the media lately are fretting about magnitudes of 2.

All the ones I’ve been reading have to do with the magnitude 3.0 and above, especially when tracking the dramatic increase in the number of earthquakes.

The announcement from the State of Oklahoma that says that the earthquakes have increased by 600 times of the previous number (just yesterday), are related to magnitude 3.0 and above. And that’s an increase in ONLY the years of 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014!

Take a look at that chart at Post #4. And note that in 2014, the chart is only for HALF of that year, not the full year!!

Oklahoma government, Texas study recognize role of drilling in earthquakes
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article19219131.html

Abandoning years of official skepticism, Oklahoma officials and Texas researchers Tuesday embraced a scientific consensus that earthquakes rocking the region are largely caused by the underground disposal of billions of barrels of wastewater from oil and gas wells.

Kansas has yet to join in the conclusion that blames the disposal process.

In Texas, wastewater injection wells, along with brine production related to oil and gas drilling, are the most likely cause of a rash of earthquakes in the Azle and Reno area northwest of Fort Worth a couple of years ago, according to a newly published scientific study.

An article published Tuesday in the science journal Nature Communications states that the 27 earthquakes in that region from November 2013 to January 2014 can be traced to oil-and-gas operations. The article was written by researchers from Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Austin and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Oklahoma’s state energy and environment Cabinet introduced a website Tuesday detailing the evidence behind the conclusion that underground disposal of wastewater was to blame for earthquakes, including links to expert studies of Oklahoma’s quakes. The site includes an interactive map that plots not only earthquake locations but also the sites of more than 3,000 active wastewater-injection wells.

The website coincided with a statement by the Oklahoma Geological Survey that it “considers it very likely” that wastewater wells are causing the majority of the state’s earthquakes.

In past decades, Oklahomans experienced fewer than two earthquakes exceeding magnitude 3.0 in an average year. But since a boom in oil and gas exploration began in the mid-2000s, that number has mushroomed. The state recorded 585 quakes of 3.0 or greater last year, more than any state except Alaska, and is on course to register more than 900 such temblors this year.

Well there may be a reason for concern in Medford.

They are sitting on top of a huge salt dome filled with NG!

Nothing a lil volcanic activity couldn't ignite.

A magnitude of 3 usually goes unnoticed, and happens over a million times per year globally. Now, you start getting 4’s and above there can be some damage.

Since you haven’t seen them, one of the articles I have seen is the AP story
“Study links swarm of quakes in Texas to natural gas drilling”. Look it up. Long on scaremongering, short on fact.

If you are experiencing stronger, more damaging quakes that is different.

The 3.0 magnitude and above (for example just 3.0 to 4.0) don’t go unnoticed around here inside Oklahoma, as they ORIGINATE from here. And there are a whole lot of them. Perhaps you’re comparing it to a bigger earthquake where they will feel it several states away. But while not many in New Mexico or Arkansas or Missouri or Louisiana or Texas may feel it, a lot in Oklahoma will (also more in Kansas than the surrounding states as these quakes run up into Kansas, too). That’s especially so, inside Oklahoma, when you’re talking about 50 or 100 or 150 miles away.

I’ve posted on the USGS site for feeling earthquakes here and have noticed that others have posted, too, within minutes or maybe up to an hour of the time that I do. You might have 50,000 posting their information, and that would be just the ones who decided to post it, not counting everyone who did notice it. So yes, we’re noticing a whole lot of earthquakes here in Oklahoma, where there was no such thing prior to 2008!

And then when you mention the 3.0 earthquakes, that is the MINIMUM magnitude for the earthquakes given in that chart at the top of this thread. These earthquakes are SKYROCKETING in number for the earthquakes at a MINIMUM of 3.0 magnitude AND UP! It’s been increasing like crazy!

And it is causing damage here in Oklahoma. There are so many even of the lower ones, close to 3.0 magnitude and up, that they are cracking foundations and walls and it’s REPEATED ... over and over again, sometimes just days apart! You’re having these homes get hit day-after-day-after day, gradually weakening the structures and causing thousands of dollars of damage ... AND ,.. it just NEVER STOPS!

Then we’re getting quite a few that go to 4.0 magnitude and above ... so that on top of the continual cracking foundations and walls, then you get brickwork and stonework and chimneys falling down, sometimes coming right through the roof and into the homes!

You have to remember these homes never had building codes meant for earthquakes. It looks like the government will now have to beef up the building codes to take into account the CONTINUAL EARTHQUAKES, but that is not the situation, right now, with these existing homes. Other areas where they are expecting earthquakes have had their building codes upgraded already. These homes in Oklahoma are getting systematically destroyed, piecemeal!

NOW ... someone else in this thread noted that Oklahoma has almost TWENTY PERCENT of ALL the earthquakes in the world, right here in this little stretch (part of which runs up into Kansas). this was information gathered by someone else, but I call your attention to it. They used 2.5 magnitude and above because apparently USGS was posting it that way, and it was for the last 30 days. This is in Post #12 and #24.

THAT is totally AMAZING! ... that Oklahoma (and a small part of Kansas) is getting almost TWENTY PERCENT of the world’s earthquakes in this range of magnitude ... that’s in this tiny region as compared to the entire rest of the world.

Click the link the poster gave in Post #24 ... and look down through that list of earthquakes.

How much did the Saudis pay for that “Study”?

Here’s a listing of those recent earthquakes from 3.5 magnitude and up, over the last month!

4.3
3km S of Guthrie, Oklahoma
2015-04-08 15:51:59 UTC-05:00 5.0 km

4.2
19km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
2015-04-04 08:21:17 UTC-05:00 5.1 km

4.1
7km W of Langston, Oklahoma
2015-04-19 00:27:15 UTC-05:00 7.6 km

4.0
26km W of Medford, Oklahoma
2015-03-24 14:48:28 UTC-05:00 6.5 km

3.9
8km W of Langston, Oklahoma
2015-04-19 01:28:14 UTC-05:00 7.9 km

3.9
7km W of Langston, Oklahoma
2015-04-17 04:08:06 UTC-05:00 6.5 km

3.9
20km SSE of Medford, Oklahoma
2015-04-06 10:30:23 UTC-05:00 5.2 km

3.8
6km W of Langston, Oklahoma
2015-04-17 03:37:11 UTC-05:00 5.8 km

3.7
23km SSE of Medford, Oklahoma
2015-04-23 01:20:40 UTC-05:00 1.2 km

3.7
11km W of Medford, Oklahoma
2015-04-20 07:08:31 UTC-05:00 2.4 km

3.7
21km WNW of Perry, Oklahoma
2015-04-04 03:35:30 UTC-05:00 5.4 km

3.7
18km N of Crescent, Oklahoma
2015-04-03 19:49:59 UTC-05:00 5.3 km

3.6
11km SE of Helena, Oklahoma
2015-04-02 21:16:49 UTC-05:00 5.6 km

3.5
13km SSW of Caldwell, Kansas
2015-04-18 13:34:05 UTC-05:00 4.6 km

3.5
25km ENE of Mooreland, Oklahoma
2015-04-16 10:49:45 UTC-05:00 8.8 km

3.5
15km ENE of Mooreland, Oklahoma
2015-04-13 09:10:06 UTC-05:00 9.2 km

3.5
21km WNW of Perry, Oklahoma
2015-04-07 12:25:12 UTC-05:00 6.9 km

3.5
26km W of Medford, Oklahoma
2015-04-01 21:10:47 UTC-05:00 5.3 km

3.5
8km WSW of Perry, Oklahoma
2015-03-24 22:15:16 UTC-05:00 5.6 km

3.5
20km WNW of Perry, Oklahoma
2015-03-24 15:25:04 UTC-05:00 5.6 km