Posted on 05/04/2015 6:36:43 PM PDT by cripplecreek
KALAMAZOO, MI -- The state official who oversees regulation of oil and gas wells says he is certain that Saturday's earthquake in Kalamazoo County is unrelated to fracking or other drilling in the area.
"I am extremely confident there is no connection," said Hal Fitch, a geologist who is director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Oil, Gas, and Minerals.
That opinion is echoed by David Barnes, professor of geosciences at Western Michigan University.
"I'm as certain as a scientist can be" that there is no connection, Barnes said.
Hydraulic fracturing -- also known as fracking -- is a process that involves pumping water at high pressure to create fractures in rock, allowing the oil or natural gas to flow more freely to the well bore.
Scientists, including those at that the U.S. Geological Survey, recently have connected an increase in seismic activity to high-pressure injection wells used to dispose of wastewater that is the byproduct of fracking. The link has been seen in Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Ohio.
However, Fitch and Barnes said the earthquake here appears to be a natural phenomena versus one induced by human activity.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
Felt the earthquake back in the 80’s...was working on the 3 floor of the hospital and the steel table bolted to the floor for the nurses station moved, but those up on the 6 floor, ICU, RCU telemetry and the step down unit left it quite strong...the higher up you go in a building the more you feel the shaking. I slept thought this latest one didn’t feel anything...
Ill match my sciencematicians semilogistics with them anytime.
So you presume oil lubricates the earth? Therefore, you presume the earth relieves itself of stress buildup from tectonic action. Well, most of the crust is solid rock. The oil is locked up and not lubricating anything. When the stress finally increase to the point that the rock cant resist them, the rock mass slips along or under faults. Oil has nothing to do with this. Earthquakes happen. Politics happens. They are unrelated.
Now, maybe you are pointing at an answer. How close was this earthquake to the $billion oil spill in a tributary of the Kalamazoo River? They have finally gathered up most of this spill on the surface, but how much could have gone deep and lubricated an earthquake fault line? Incidentally, this $billion disaster that started in 2010 was caused by a 6 foot diameter Enbridge owned Canadian tar sands oil pipeline which leaked for 24 hours before discovery. From pictures I’ve seen it looks like there was a seam rupture at least 10 feet long. Actually, this link shows the rupture in the first line of photos:
None. Keep bringing it up though, I need a laugh once in a while.
Right in between two wells, not a good pic to help fracking cause.
Only if you can’t read.
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