Coal Mining Causing Earthquakes, Study Says

The most damaging earthquake in Australia's history was caused by humans, new research says.

The magnitude-5.6 quake that struck Newcastle in New South Wales on December 28, 1989, killed 13 people, injured 160, and caused 3.5 billion U.S. dollars worth of damage.

That quake was triggered by changes in tectonic forces caused by 200 years of underground coal mining, according to a study by Christian D. Klose of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York.

Gadzooks! I just googled earthquakes in Britain, and there’s actually been quite a few over the centuries. However, few deaths have been reported. I would think that with the massive coal mining that has gone on in Britain over the last two centuries, the whole island might have caved in according to the er scientist’s analysis.

I am very curious as to just how well this study was conducted. (I.E. More people who drive cars routinely eat bread than drive drunk, apply makeup, or text so there can be no doubt bread is the major cause of automobile wrecks. Studies are not infallible!) The planet Earth has gone through cycles of global warming and cooling even before humans came along. How do they know it is man and cattle causing the current warming trend? Or is it another ice age that is coming? Areas exist in which mining has occurred all over the world but they do not all experience seismic activity and earthquakes. Does mining have to occur only at fault lines for this to occur? In which case, how do they do know it was the mining that caused it in the first place? Are there any areas at all without fault lines and no history of quakes what so ever in which mining has caused an onset of seismic activity never before present? Mining has been going on for a very long time. Just what is it about mining that is just now starting cause these problems when it never did before? Inquiring minds want to know!

This isn’t a study per se but it does pose some various history, facts, and information I think you will find quite interesting.

http://www1.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2012-02-14-does-fracking-cause-earthquakes

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