From Cornell University , another one of the numerous studies that tries to make fracking (via wastewater products) look bad because it is claimed to cause small earthquakes as far as 30km away, which seems more than a bit of a stretch to me. There’s quite a bit of irrational hysteria and outright lies surrounding the issue, so much so that terrified eco-activists in my own county successfully got a ballot initiative on the Nov 4th election to ban fracking, even though there hasn’t been an oil/gas well drilled here in 25 years, making the ban pretty much a moot point. Meanwhile the fracking process is set to help the U.S. overtake Saudi Arabia, so one wonders if the inconvenience of small quakes might be acceptable.
Oklahoma quakes induced by wastewater injection, study finds
ITHACA, N.Y. – The dramatic increase in earthquakes in central Oklahoma since 2009 is likely attributable to subsurface wastewater injection at just a handful of disposal wells, finds a new study published in the journal Science on July 3, 2014.
The research team was led by Katie Keranen, professor of geophysics at Cornell University, who says Oklahoma earthquakes constitute nearly half of all central and eastern U.S. seismicity from 2008 to 2013, many occurring in areas of high-rate water disposal.
“Induced seismicity is one of the primary challenges for expanded shale gas and unconventional hydrocarbon development. Our results provide insight into the process by which the earthquakes are induced and suggest that adherence to standard best practices may substantially reduce the risk of inducing seismicity,” said Keranen. “The best practices include avoiding wastewater disposal near major faults and the use of appropriate monitoring and mitigation strategies.”
The study also concluded:
- Four of the highest-volume disposal wells in Oklahoma (~0.05% of wells) are capable of triggering ~20% of recent central U.S. earthquakes in a swarm covering nearly 2,000 square kilometers, as shown by analysis of modeled pore pressure increase at relocated earthquake hypocenters.
- Earthquakes are induced at distances over 30 km from the disposal wells. These distances are far beyond existing criteria of 5 km from the well for diagnosis of induced earthquakes.
- The area of increased pressure related to these wells continually expands, increasing the probability of encountering a larger fault and thus increasing the risk of triggering a higher-magnitude earthquake.
“Earthquake and subsurface pressure monitoring should be routinely conducted in regions of wastewater disposal and all data from those should be publicly accessible. This should also include detailed monitoring and reporting of pumping volumes and pressures,” said Keranen. ‘In many states the data are more difficult to obtain than for Oklahoma; databases should be standardized nationally. Independent quality assurance checks would increase confidence. “
Top marks though to Cornell researchers, who made their data and SI available here, along with the paper. Contrast that to NOAA/NCDC that puts their papers behind the paywall of the AMS.
Download the study, data, and SI: https://cornell.box.com/okquakes
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Chuck: I agree that volcanism produces earthquakes before an eruption. Have you ever been to central Oklahoma? Not a volcano to be found. And, as I recall, years back in California there was some talk about injecting fluids into fault zones for the express purpose of inducing miniquakes. Never done, I guess. Maybe they were afraid that they would lubricate into a massive quake and face massive legal problems.
Chuck. I said it is accepted (not proven). You emphatically state they do not reduce stress. Now prove your not generally accepted hypothesis ( by working geologists)
Oklahoma Geological Survey has the straight goods:
“Overall, the majority, but not all, of the recent earthquakes appear to be the result of natural stresses, since they are consistent with the regional Oklahoma natural stress field.”
http://www.ogs.ou.edu%2Fpdf%2FOGS_POSITION_STATEMENT_2_18_14.pdf&h=TAQHBE1b3
Grotesque McKibben projects 1000% more earthquakes this year using falsified MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow graphics:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152497223757708&set=a.136077452707.110998.12185972707&type=1&fref=nf
Frac fluids are measures in gallons.. Water cut is measured in barrels. Frac fluid flows back once, water cut increases every day a well produces
They lubricated the faults by injecting enormous volumes of water produced from wells which produce 95 % water, 5% oil. It has nothing to do with fracking.
I’d rather frack than deal with ISIS. Prolonged war or a slight tremour. The choice is your America.
” chuck says: July 5, 2014 at 6:41 am
ponysboy says:July 5, 2014 at 5:51 am
“Small earthquakes take the pressure off and reduce the chances of a big one.”
There is no real evidence to support this assertion.
In fact swarms of small earthquakes are an indicator of an imminent eruption in volcanology”
It might be helpful to consider the amount of energy involved. Fracking might involve 100 megapascals of pressure, while seismologists discuss earthquakes in terms of gigapascals – at least an order of magnitude greater.
Using a seismologically small amount of pressure to relieve a larger amount, will necessarily make that larger amount unavailable for a future quake. As the pressure would have continued to build, the future quake would have been larger. So yes, “Small earthquakes take the pressure off and reduce the chances of a big one.”
betapug says:
July 5, 2014 at 9:44 am
“Grotesque McKibben projects 1000% more earthquakes this year using falsified MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow graphics:”
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152497223757708&set=a.136077452707.110998.12185972707&type=1&fref=nf
_________________
The comments attached to that piece you linked are eye- opening. There seems to be only one comment made which supports scientific truth. That author was immediately attacked, including calls for his death. What an enlightened bunch.
ATheoK says:
July 5, 2014 at 8:12 am
” Half of Oklahoma lies within the New Madrid earthquake zone.” Au Contraire my friend. The New Madrid Seismic Zone(http://www.dnr.mo.gov/geology/geosrv/geores/techbulletin1.htm) lies almost entiriely in Arkansas and includes parts of Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee. The Meers Fault is in southwestern Oklahoma (close to Lawton) and is more likely related to the thrusting that created the Arbuckle Mtns.
The buried Nemaha Ridge and associated faults runs from the OK City area north into Kansas, many (not all) of the recent quakes have been along this.
Unless one enjoys arguing with Eco fanatics and becoming a hieratic in their eyes, one stays away from such sites. I consider it demeaning to converse with useful idiots.
oops… that should read….”almost entirely…”
the comment here seem to miss the point.the don’t care about earthquakes the just hate American freedoms and wish to destroy them one unint of energy at a time
Okay… so Cornell, takes some data… makes a model and then claims that agreement between the data and their model Proves their analysis is right. What they did NOT do, is make predictions for the next ten years about the magnitude, location and frequency of earthquakes for the next ten years. If the model is totally useless for predictions, then it is also totally useless for past analysis in my humble opinion. This is just another propaganda tool being used by the Progressives to shut down fracking. In actuality, if fracking is contributing to very minor earthquakes, that is probably a good thing anyways, as it is much better to have a multitude of tiny earth quakes rather than a large mag 7 or 8 earthquake.
Good to hear that the Left finally gives up on Geothermal; which is everywhere outside Iceland a rather disappointingly low energy density solution and extremely unsustainable. And causes Earthquakes.
latecommer2014 says:
July 5, 2014 at 10:56 am
“Unless one enjoys arguing with Eco fanatics and becoming a hieratic in their eyes, one stays away from such sites. I consider it demeaning to converse with useful idiots.”
In real life they are interesting audience – you totally dismember what they thought were their arguments and they KEEP COMING BACK FOR MORE. Really. It’s like their unconscious drives them towards punishment because it wants to learn. It’s very painful to them and leaves them shaken. I enjoy it a lot.
I keep telling these idiots (in the UK), that i understand and respect their concerns. And i further demand that they turn off their own gas supply, so they are not tainted by abject hypocrisy.
Strangely enough, every single one of them has refused to turn off their gas supplies.
R
ponysboy says:
July 5, 2014 at 5:51 am
“On the other hand it’s not nice to fool with mother nature.”
All these years Nature tried to make you freeze to death, eat you, sting you, poison you, and now that Nature is on the receiving end you’re whining?
There’s been an increase in small Earthquakes in Yellowstone Park, centering on the supervolcano.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBREA2U01920140331?irpc=932
Frankly there are other things to worry about than fracking
mjc says:
July 5, 2014 at 8:51 am
I live in one of the areas of ‘fracking central’ and if all the energy consumed by the anti crowd and their misinformation were eliminated, the need for fracking would likely be reduced by a noticeable amount.
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Thanks for that comment. I have wells all around me – and what the oil/gas exploration has done is create hundreds of miles of trails for riding horses and for game to use. New seismic techniques use GPS and curvilinear trails that make the trails useful for all forms of animal life. Deer, elk, moose, bear, coyotes, wolves, cougars and all the many other critters are in abundance and totally adapted to the many wells around here. No worse than other activities, even farming. Well actually farms probably makes a bigger hole in the environment than the oil industry. Everything we do punches a hole somewhere – but most things are highly adaptable and resilient. Coyotes and ravens learn to follow the hay mower and eat mice ad infinitum.
There is a running debate about small earthquakes relieving the stress of a larger one. I’m adding my two cents here. If the small induced earthquake occurs within the stress field of the hypothetical larger and subsequent one, then theoretically it does relieve some strain energy of the larger one. However, as each two magnitudes represent one-thousand times more stress or strain energy release, one ought to see that the energy released in a single magnitude six is equivalent to one-million magnitude twos, small earthquakes cannot relieve energy in large ones in a practical sense.
As has been pointed out already there is a difference between fracking and injection wells. Most people don’t realize how much water oil & gas wells produce. That water needs to be put somewhere. This article in Science is being used to confirm that fracking causes earthquakes in the headlines of the media, when in fact it is injection wells. The link below discusses water produced by oil & gas production.
http://aqwatec.mines.edu/produced_water/intro/pw/index.htm
Kaboom says: “… a large quake in the future averted as it releases energy that will otherwise continue to accumulate. That would make frequent small and harmless quakes a good thing.”
Unfortunately for those living in the area, those frequent small quakes are anything but harmless. Companies performing the waster water injection should be required to reimburse those living in frequent small and harmful quake areas for damage done to their homes, buildings, and property.
Steve from Rockwood says: “article in Science is being used to confirm that fracking causes earthquakes in the headlines of the media, when in fact it is injection wells. ”
Does it really matter to those suffering costly property damage whether it is the fracking, the injection wells, or combination of both?
Yes, since 95% of the water being injected is from the old long producing oil and gas fields, some >50 years since discovery, and NOT from the modern horizontal fractured wells.
Alcheson says: “… as it is much better to have a multitude of tiny earth quakes rather than a large mag 7 or 8 earthquake.”
Large earthquake – rebuild once. Death by axe.
Multitude of tiny earthquakes – repair and rebuild multitude of times. Death by a thousand paper cuts.
Jimbo says: “I’d rather frack than deal with ISIS. Prolonged war or a slight tremour. The choice is your America.”
Simple choice when you are not having to pay for “slight tremour” induced property damages.
I also see in the anti-fracking image above the Sierra Club.
It’s good to see that the Sierra Club has now seen the light. Maybe the gas industry wanted to make it relatively cheaper to frack by attacking coal. They needed to pave the way, and the Sierra Club helped them out. But no more I see.