Posted on 07/07/2014 1:23:59 PM PDT by mbarker12474
Study links Oklahoma earthquake swarm with fracking operations
By Hailey Branson-Potts
[skip to the last paragraph if you want to skip the nonsense.]
Oklahoma ... boom ... recent years: oil and gas production and earthquakes.
To many residents, the timing .... Before the oil and gas industry started drilling... rare to feel an earthquake. Today, Oklahoma... second-most seismically active state ....
Now ... fresh scientific evidence .... Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Colorado say a large swarm of earthquakes ... caused by ... disposal wells, ... wastewater from drilling operations ... hydraulic fracturing ... deep geological formations....
Four high-rate disposal wells ... induced a group of earthquakes ... Jones swarm, ... 20% of the seismicity in the central and eastern United States ... journal Science.
The Jones swarm, ... more than 100 earthquakes ... five-year period. The four wells ... 4 million barrels of fluid monthly. Hydraulic fracturing... high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals ... extract oil and natural gas. ... wastewater is often forced underground ....
When fluid is injected ... increases pressure ... pores of those formations..... The increased pressure .... trigger earthquakes ....
For ... researchers created a three-dimensional hydrogeological model... spread pressure through the pores. The computer model used actual... .......
The “more fluid you put in ... the sponge ....
....
Terry said disposal wells have been used in the state for more than 50 years and “have met and even exceeded current disposal volumes during that time.” Oil and natural gas are produced in 70 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties, so “any seismic activity within the state is likely to occur near oil and gas activity,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Now we will shame western civilization for causing earthquakes.
I love how they label wastewater disposal wells as fracking.
I thought globull warming was responsible, and George Bush before that. Fracking, huh? What will the liberals dream up next.
“Los Angeles Times Science”....bwahahahahahahaha.
Stopped reading right there.
The problem with the study is who did it, it was done by anti fracking so called scientist and Feds.
Do the recipients want more grants?
Question #1: of these 100+ earthquakes, how many were generated from a depth equivalent to the common injection depth (approximately 10, 000 BSG)? How many quakes originated at depths never reached by drilling/fracking activities?
Question #2: Provided these injections “caused” minor eathquakes, can these not be attributed to “lubricating the slip and slide” of faults actually ^mitigating^ more severe earthquakes that would have caused disastrous results? Might this not be a beneficial activity in heavily faulted areas?
I’ve seen War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. I know its alien spaceships which were buried a long time ago.
ride the lightning baby
Did these swarms do a nickles worth of damage? Then who cares about it?
One question: who funded the study? If you want to know why they found the results they did, follow the money.
You took my post. :)
A deep disposal well drilled on the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in the 1960's caused minor quakes here until it was shut down.
And “insert name of OPEC Country Here”
There have been proposals to pump water deep into the San Andreas Fault. The object being to relieve the stress along it’s length in a series of small quakes, and thus avoid “the big one”.
Perhaps the frackers are doing them a favor.
Scientists wanted to ameliorate the larger earthquakes in California’s major faults by injecting water. This would lubricate the fault and cause it slip slowly, making many small quakes instead of one gigantic and super destructive quake. But a lot of rich people live on the fault line and since the water injection would be causing quakes they would result in ruinous lawsuits. So, instead of potentially saving cities like San Francisco we’ll have one giant quake that kills thousands and causes billions in damage.
It seems the same is probably happening in Oklahoma. On the other hand, it could be just normal quakes that occur periodically anyway. Given who the hysterical reports are from, Bill Moyers and the like, it’s probably just more anti-oil rhetoric.
SHARKNADO!
Sharks tumbling out of the sky from hurricanes passing over shark-infested waters.
A much more believable premise.
Fracking CAUSES earthquakes? Please explain the correlation. Not that much material is released from the substrate to account for anything like the effects attributed to the process.
I’ve seen War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise.
Terrible movie.
I suspect the conclusion of this “study” was determined in advance.
Cornell, Columbia, U Co and USGS. Solved.
Yes, it's not the fracking that is causing the problem but instead injection of large volumes of wastewater into disposal wells, a conclusion I consider likely. There are other methods to handle the wastewater - collection at centralized facilities, minimal treatment and reuse for one. This is currently being allowed here in New Mexico where water is scarce. Yes it will increase the cost somewhat, but the benefits of fracking should far outweigh a change in the practice.
The companies will need to get ahead of the curve on this as perception of fracking as bad, as yelled from the rooftops by the radical, anti-fossil fuel environmentalists, will help convince the low-information voters that we should not use this technique to develop our oil and gas reserves.
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