Posted on 12/26/2014 6:59:57 PM PST by Star Traveler
There have been more than 500 magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes in Oklahoma this year, up significantly from 109 in 2013 and just 35 in 2012, according to U.S. Geological Survey officials.
As of Monday, there were 549 of the higher magnitude quakes in 2014, with 19 being magnitude 4.0 or greater.
USGS officials focused on magnitude 3.0 or greater quakes because the smaller the magnitude, the more potential there is for missing an event, USGS Geophysicist Robert Williams said.
The USGS is looking into the increase in earthquakes, mostly occurring in central and north-central Oklahoma, he said.
“Starting probably in 2009, we started to notice the jump in earthquakes, even though it was small back then, relative to 2014,” Williams said.
A new scientific group focused on studying induced seismicity has been formed. There probably are six to 10 researchers working on the issue, with about four or five working full time now, according to Williams.
(Excerpt) Read more at enidnews.com ...
In just a quick search, I found:
That’s a good and honest explanation for the layperson, like myself.
I suppose, if I knew the causative factors and probable results to expect, I could deal with a flurry of smaller quakes without going into full panic. That is similar to what I’ve been experiencing anyway in California.
I know that here in Texas there is one possible conspiracy theory that is not terribly clever.
In north texas, scientist with an anti fracking agenda began to place more micro quake detection equipment around the Dallas area. What is still not reported to the public is that the dramatic “increase” in number of quakes coincides with the dramatic increase in detection abilities.
I wonder if this might be the case in Oklahoma. We are having a lot of micro quakes here in the Dallas area— but I am not sure if it indicates anything except the university professors who want to detect the quakes and then trick the public in to believing correlation is causation.
Similar tricks have been done on global warming with tornado incidents.
I'm an engineer, not a geologist.
But, geology aside, the physics is pretty obvious to me. Oil extraction doesn't leave a big hole in the ground, and it cannot generate the magnitude of energy released by an earthquake.
So yes, while fracking may be a trigger for earthquakes, the stark reality is that energy will be released, someday. The only question is whether it will be spread out over smaller events, or in one large event.
The most powerful seismic events in recorded history to hit the eastern US were the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes. The epicenters were in Arkansas and Missouri. They were moderately felt over 1 million square miles in the Midwest, vs. about 6,200 square miles for the infamous 1906 San Francisco quake. Aftershocks continued for 5 years.
There is some evidence that the New Madrid Seismic zone experienced severe quakes every 400-600 years prior to recorded history.
Note that the New Madrid Seismic zone doesn't include Oklahoma. But, I think it's an good way to remind people that earthquakes and tectonic plate shifts aren't limited to California.
...”creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God....For we know that the whole creation ‘groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together’ until now.”.....Romans 8
We forget I think that the earth its;ef was impacted by sin....and “gorans” within itslef to be released.
There is an area at a park in the city near me where homosexuals meet up and have sex on the spot. The trees and entire area is barren looking compared to the rest of the park....
That graph was for earthquakes 3.0 and over. Those can be detected outside of Oklahoma. The increase is real, without a doubt.
Those aren’t plate boundaries ... :-) ...
Yes, very true,
When Adam fell, all of creation fell with him and waits to be delivered,
Let’s be clear. These are very small quakes that are almost indiscernible. They happen all the time. There is a rhetorical effort by activist academics who want to shut down fracking by creating a false correlation between the more than 1 million quakes of this size that happen across the united states and fracking.
Here is some perspective on how small these quakes are:
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/magnitude.html
I definitely do not think it is worth allowing Saudi Arabia to dictate our national prosperity.
I’m not sure what Saudi Arabia has to do with the earthquakes in Oklahoma increasing dramatically ... LOL ...
As far as it being not worthy of attention ... well it’s getting the attention of USGS which issue a warning to Oklahoma for a potentially big earthquake, as a result of the dramatic increase of these earthquakes. It’s the first one they’ve issued east of the Rockies. That was earlier this year.
In addition to that, it’s also getting the attention of a lot of people in Oklahoma who are now getting earthquake insurance, whereas over a decade ago, if you did that, you would have been the butt of jokes by everyone around you ... :-) ...
And, these earthquakes in Oklahoma are also causing damage to houses, costing people money, whereas that wasn’t happening before, and it’s also likely going to result in more stringent parameters for building houses in Oklahoma, because of this dramatic increase. I’ve seen a series of pictures of brick walls falling off houses, chimneys crashing down, and just a block or so from me, a two-story stone wall on a church collapsed and had to be rebuilt.
These earthquakes are causing real-world damages and are getting people to change their thinking about earthquakes in Oklahoma, something that was really unthinkable before.
People here are not able to deny such real-world changes, in the last five to six years ... something that had not happened in Oklahoma before.
The federal government seeks to shut down fracking.
The media agrees.
Together they sensationalize quakes that rarely are perceived let alone cause damage. Almost every week here in Dallas I hear the same local reports. I’ve never felt a quake or seen damage by one. 4.0 is almost imperceptible. Most of these are 2.0 or lower.
There are a million such quakes every year in the us.
I have no idea if the Federal a Government seeks to shut down fracking or not ... but I doubt it, because of how much is going on now. But, let’s say for the sake of argument that they are ... that would be another issue ... while the issue here is the unpecented and dramatic increase in earthquakes here in Oklahoma where it hasn’t gone on before.
Then you have an unprecedented warning from the USGS (this year) that there is a higher likelihood of a stronger quake coming in the future, where these quakes are either leading up to it or an indicator of it coming.
But as far as “sensationalizing it” ... you can’t sensationalize what people have already picked up on their own, apart from the media. I’ve already filed several reports with the USGS where earthquakes have shaken the house, and we’ve noticed cracks in the outside stonework that wasn’t there before (back prior to the dramatic increase of the last few years.
I have been woken up before, I have seen the house rolling back and forth as things are swaying inside, I have been here when everyone in the house just stopped dead and wondered when it was going to stop. This simply did not hsppen at this frequency before a few years ago.
When you go from numbers like anywhere from 1 to 3 of them a year ... to over 500 a year, as we speak right now ... That doesn’t take anyone on the outside sensationalizing it ... the people here in Oklahoma KNOW, without a doubt, that “something is up” and different right now.
But after having said all that, I still don’t know what the dramatic increase in Oklahoma earthquakes has to do with Saudi Arabia ... :-) ... you got me there ...
I’m not able to tell you what it is or isn’t in terms of cause or causes. The only thing I can tell you is that it’s an absolutely dramatic increase in earthquakes, whereas it was at 1 to 3 of them a year (for decades in the past) and in the last few years, it has spiked to (right now) over 500 year. That’s mind-boggling. And we’re talking about anything over 3.0 and not the less than 3.0 ones.
I guess it will have to take some serious study to find out what is behind this mind-boggling and dramatic increase of Oklahoma earthquakes from 1-3 a year to over 500 a year (again, the over 3.0 ones).
But it's only (}--------------------{) that far on the map...
(I think we're gonna need a bigger map!)
My map puts it at a 19 hour drive ... 1,260 miles ... :-) ...
The New Madrid seismic zone would be of more concern (for something “far away”) than Yellowstone.
Agree that it's not worth shutting down fracking which may have nothing to do with the quakes.
However, these quakes are perceptible. We felt two at work (two that were over 4.0) here in middle Kansas. Yep, they occurred in Oklahoma and we felt in central Kansas. That was the first time my co-workers had ever felt an earthquake and two have lived here all their lives and the other for 25 years and we felt them and so did a whole bunch of people in town. Even as north as Manhattan KS felt the two that were over 4.0.
The one in Kansas, a little while back, made our house in Tulsa “rock and roll” ... :-) ...
There’s no question that SOMETHING has changed recently in the last few years (whatever it is) and it’s definitely dramatic (for people who have been around here for a long time).
And, by the way, for that one in Kansas, I was filling out a USGS form on that earthquake even before the automated USGS map had registered the quake ... :-) ...
I was surprised, I kept checking the usgs site thinking their equipment would instantly post the information but we had to keep updating the site for about 20 minutes before they finally showed up.
And actually, that’s right, they weren’t in Oklahoma, they were way south in KS near the OK border. I check every day now the USGS site and see several quakes every day in OK. Way more than anywhere else in the US. Something weird is definitely going on down there.
I would have expected earthquake numbers to mirror or trail fracking or injection well activity changes if that is connected.
Looking at the basement contours (subsea depths) on the map at page 4 of this report Petroleum Geology of the Anadarko Basin Region, Province (115), Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas From the USGS, it appears that some of the earthquakes exceed the basement depth (the last sediments on the way down and beginning of what is generally older crystalline bedrock). Fracs are not going to be the problem at that depth because the pressures there are already greater than frac pressures, and basically, because no one is going to frac cryatalline (igneous or metamorphic) rock looking for the oil that is much more likely to be in sediments.
For similar reasons, saltwater disposal wells are more likely to cause disturbances nearer the surface than at depths of 7.2 or 8.3 km, even though it is entirely possible to drill sediments in the SW Anadarko Basin at those depths.
Ideally a disposal well has underpressured porosity and the pressure exerted by the column of water to be disposed of will cause it to disperse into the formation where the fluid is being injected--gravity does the hard work of injecting the fluid.
This isn't fraccing, but disposal of large quantities of salt water (produced with the oil) over a period of time.
Fraccing may cause smaller localized disturbances of low magnitude, just from fracturing the rocks at depth, but usually those would settle down as the frac job concludes or shortly afterwards. Making a swarm of 2 mm wide cracks in rock at depth makes for small disturbances, but few, if any, earthquakes have been documented of significant magnitude (4.0+) from fraccing, where some have been documented from injection wells engaged in the ongoing disposal of production water.
I'm admittedly only looking at part of the puzzle, with the map of earthquakes and the map of the basin depths, but without the oil and gas activity maps I'd need to compare that data with as well.
My educated guess is that there is some seismic activity related to tectonic happenings in the basement rocks.
How serious that may or may not be is impossible to say considering the inability to attribute the cause.
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