Posted on 02/28/2013 11:27:04 AM PST by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Earthquakes are part of living in California.
But Randy Paige, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, says Mother Nature might not be solely to blame for the Earth’s shaking.
Many scientists are concerned with fracking — the use of hydraulics to get gas and oil out of the ground — and suggest the practice might be responsible for increased seismic activity.
“We call this induced seismicity,” says US Geological Survey Seismologist Lucy Jones.
She says earthquakes can be triggered when waste water, used in the hydraulic process is disposed of by injecting the water deep into the Earth.
The process, she believes, touched off a 5.6 magnitude quake in Oklahoma, a 5.0 in Colorado, 1 4.8 in Wyoming and a 4.0 in January of last year.
“It’s very clear cut that disposing of waste fluids at depth can and does set off earthquakes,” Jones said.
Paige asks Jones what the process of fracking would mean to California. Simple, says Jones. “Our hypothesis would be that we could set off earthquakes.”
She also believes that the quakes set off in California would be more severe — our faults are larger and deeper.
Oil industry spokesperson Dave Quast says waste water from fracking has been done in California — for decades — with no known quakes triggered by the process.
He believes it is because less water has to be used here to produce oil. “In the east in a hydraulic fracturing operation there might be five million or more gallons of water used. Here in California, it might be a small percentage of that. It might be closer to 115 or 120,000 gallons of water,” Quast said.
Oil industry watchdog Judy Dugan is dubious. “We can’t depend on the word of oil companies.”
Jessica Black and her newborn live directly behind an oil field in Ventura County. State documents show her area was at the center of a fracking operation.
“That’s very scary,” Black said. “I think we definitely, we need to know more.”
Jones agrees the long term impact on fracking in California is not known. “So we have proposed a study and we have a team of people who have been put together,” said Jones.
“So we have proposed a study and we have a team of people who have been put together,” said Jones.
Translation - Send more money!
By that logic North Dakota is going to have 7.9 EQ soon.
In the meantime, pay no attention to the Bernankster behind the curtain creating zillions of $ out of thin air and giving it to his banker and political friends in government; all in the ostensible best interests of "the economy."
It’s more likely that fart-mouth liberals cause earthquakes.
Aside from glow-bull warming, I cause earthquakes now? Cool!
Here we go again.
I am getting really tired of the cast of “The Big Bang Theory” posing as “scientists”.
They’re actors!
/sarc
Fracking doesn’t cause earthquakes — FRACKING CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING!
Wrong.
Injection wells largely dispose of production saltwater.
Actually, if fracking did do this, it could save countless lives and billions of dollars.
Simple question: What is more destructive, three dozen 1.0 magnitude earthquakes, or one 6.0 magnitude quake?
In some circumstances, after a big earthquake in an earthquake prone region, it might be a very good idea to relieve stress by causing a whole bunch of little earthquakes.
We need a better set of data on which to decide. With so much at stake environmentally and economically the world has to make the correct decision. Cannot afford to be wrong.
This is a good thing.
Better to release that tension building up in small harmless increments instead of letting it accumulate it one big one.
I was going to say pretty much the same thing.
Wow. Humans can now cause earthquakes! Amazing.(sar.)
““We call this induced hysteria,” says US Geological Survey Seismologist Lucy Jones.”
Follow the money.
Fracking will also cause meteorites, tsunamis and tooth decay.
Studies being funded now!
/s
A very few greedy scientists with a lberal bias think they need more money! Government come in a save them! They need more of our money to stud this “serious” issue!
SOURCE:
http://energeticcity.ca/article/news/2013/02/14/context-everything-when-linking-fracking-earthquakes
Kevin Heffernan of the Canadian Society of Unconventional Resources was at the Fort St. John and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon today, speaking about the link between fracking and earthquakes. He argues that reading headlines about induced seismicity may raise some concerns, but that “context is everything”.
“If you define earthquakes the right way, everything that we do as humans is causing earthquakes, we just can’t detect them,” he told the crowd. “These are very, very minor events that are occurring two kilometres under ground.”
A recent study released by the Oil and Gas Commission found that fracking has caused several low-level earthquakes in the Horn River Basin.
Between April 2009 and December 2011, 38 were reported by Natural Resources Canada, and another 234 were recorded by seismographs in the Etsho and Kiwigana areas. The largest earthquake ever attributed to fracking in the Horn River Basin registered at a 3.8 on the Richter scale, but Heffernan says it’s more typically to see “microseisms” in the minus three to zero magnitude.
He calls earthquakes a “badly misunderstood phenomenon”, and points out that there are millions of these low-level seismic events every year which are induced by human activity. He adds that there was no risk to public safety or the environment from any of those events.
“We do lots of things as people that induce earthquakes,” he says, like underground mining, dam construction, disposal wells and geothermal development. 40:30 “If it was me, I wouldn’t get hung up about about induced seismicity.”
He maintains that there are bigger risks to worry about from the oil and gas industry, particularly problems that occur at the surface of well sites, like during the movement of chemicals and trucks.
“That makes me a big proponent of multi-well pads, because it reduces the amount of men and materials and vehicles that are moving around the countryside, as well as reducing habitat fragmentation and pipelines.”
Since the study, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers issued new guidelines to address the threat of earthquakes caused by fracking. The OGC also made seven recommendations, which include improving the accuracy of the Canadian National Seismograph Network in northeast B.C., performing geological and seismic assessments to identify pre-existing faulting, establishing induced seismicity monitoring and reporting Procedures and Requirements, and stationing ground motion sensors near selected northeast B.C. communities to quantify risk from ground motion.
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