Posted on 04/21/2015 7:37:21 PM PDT by Star Traveler
How do you know it isn't a historic earthquake hot zone, but has just been calm for the last 200 years?
Wow, I nearly fell out of my chair when I read that. I would never have believed it.
It’s not ALL the wells, but certain ones, and the scientists are trying to identify them and the mechanism. I don’t know how necessary it is for the wastewater to be injected down those drill sites.
What actions are Oklahoma state agencies taking?
To give you an example of what has happened in the past, outside of the time of human habitation and record-keeping ... there is an example in the Pacific Northwest, having to do with the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The scientists did not know before the 1990s that earthquakes of 9.0 to possibly 10.0 happened there, but they now know of them.
That’s an example of needing studies to find out. But right now, the main culprit are certain wells in Oklahoma. This is not a state where they very easily arrive at those conclusions, as this is an OIL STATE ... :-) ...
Kansas is as well, has the same problem, and has rejected the wastewater injection theory.
Just saying.
They’re doing studies to try and find out which types of wells cause this. I understand the state has put up a web site for the public in Oklahoma to get information on what is known and what the state is doing. I haven’t looked at it yet!
I don’t believe fracking has anything to do with it either. The earthquakes are 3-10 miles deeper than the deepest wells. When you take into account the small amount of hydraulic fluid compared to the cubic MILES of rock that move, it’s like saying if you spit on the base of the Washington Monument, it will slide towards the Capitol.
As I said in another thread. Its scientific consensus that water pumps move tectonic plates.
Rare Earthquake Warning Issued for Oklahoma
http://www.livescience.com/45361-oklahoma-earthquake-risk-rising.html
Mile for mile, there are almost as many earthquakes rattling Oklahoma as California this year. This major increase in seismic shaking led to a rare earthquake warning today (May 5) from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
In a joint statement, the agencies said the risk of a damaging earthquake — one larger than magnitude 5.0 — has significantly increased in central Oklahoma.
Geologists don’t know when or where the state’s next big earthquake will strike, nor will they put a number on the increased risk. “We haven’t seen this before in Oklahoma, so we had some concerns about putting a specific number on the chances of it,” Robert Williams, a research geophysicist with the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program in Golden, Colorado, told Live Science. “But we know from other cases around the world that if you have an increasing number of small earthquakes, the chances of a larger one will go up.” [Watch 2500+ Oklahoma Earthquakes Since 2012 (Video)]
That’s why earthquakes of magnitude 5 and larger are more frequent in states such as California and Alaska, where thousands of smaller temblors hit every year.
This is the first time the USGS has issued an earthquake warning for a state east of the Rockies, Williams said. Such seismic hazard assessments are more typically issued for Western states following large quakes, to warn residents of the risk of damaging aftershocks, he said.
The geological agencies took action after the rate of earthquakes in Oklahoma outpaced that of even California for the first few months of 2014. (California regained the lead in April.) [The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History]
“The rate of earthquakes increased dramatically in March and April,” Williams said. “That alerted us to examine this further and put out this advisory statement.”
While Oklahoma’s buildings can withstand light earthquakes, the damage from a magnitude-5 temblor could be widespread. Oklahoma’s last major earthquake was in November 2011, when a magnitude-5.6 earthquake centered near Prague, Oklahoma, destroyed 14 homes and injured at least two people.
“Building owners and government officials should have a special concern for older, unreinforced brick structures, which are vulnerable to serious damage during sufficient shaking,” Bill Leith, a USGS senior science adviser for earthquakes and geologic hazards, said in the joint statement.
It'll probably miss and land in Mexico.
As recently as last fall, Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, indicated that suggestions of a relationship between oil and gas activity and seismicity were speculation, and that more study was needed.
In a news release issued Tuesday, Ms. Fallin called the Geological Survey’s endorsement of that relationship significant, and said the state was dealing with the problem.
“Oklahoma state agencies already are taking action to address this issue and protect homeowners,” she said in a statement.
Since that time, the earthquakes have largly shifted north, centering towards Medford, midway between Wichita and Oklahoma City.
post hoc ergo propter hoc
That would be more meaningful if a fracking activity map was placed alongside, or better, superimposed.
For all any of us outside OK know, the fracking is occurring where there is no earthquake activity.
If fracking causes earthquakes, North Dakota should have been ripped apart by now.
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