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Google Funding the Next Big One?
wdavies writes "According to this New York Times article, Google is funding a controversial deep drill geothermal project north of San Francisco. Apparently the company, AltaRock, omitted to disclose that the same deep drilling caused a major quake in Basel, Switzerland when it was last used. Given the notorious geological instability of the Northern Californian coast, this strikes me as kind of dumb — and given the known likelihood of this technique producing earthquakes, somewhat EVIL."
Also the article says it's "nearly the same" drilling technology as the one that caused the quake in Basel while the summary says it's the same. It seems it's not the same though. The article goes on to say:
Officials at AltaRock, with offices in Sausalito, Calif., and Seattle, insist that the company has learned the lessons of Basel and that its own studies indicate the project can be carried out safely. James T. Turner, AltaRock's senior vice president for operations, said the company had applied for roughly 20 patents on ways to improve the method.
I don't know about Basel but I'm certain these guys know they would face serious legal/criminal action if they didn't know for sure it was safe.
My work here is dung.
It seems to me that the only thing a large drill may do is release the pressure that's building up. It's not going to "cause" an earthquake per se, it's going to release one before it happens natually, which will likely be less intense than if it had been allowed to build up pressure in the first place.
Plate tectonics causes quakes! Sometimes, however, drilling *releases* stress, triggering quakes that were already going to happen, the drilling just throws the straw on the camel's back, so to speak.
In fact, technologies like this could be useful in doing controlled release of earthquakes, such that you can pick the time it can occur so people are ready for it.
In TFA, they say artificially caused quakes are easy to identify:
Analysis of seismic data proved him correct. The quake measured 3.4 modest in some parts of the world. But triggered quakes tend to be shallower than natural ones, and residents generally describe them as a single, explosive bang or jolt often out of proportion to the magnitude rather than a rumble.
Triggered quakes are also frequently accompanied by an air shock, a loud tearing or roaring noise.
The noise made me feel it was some sort of supersonic aircraft going overhead, said Heinrich Schwendener, who, as president of Geopower Basel, the consortium that includes Geothermal Explorers and the utility companies, was standing next to the borehole.
It took me maybe half a minute to realize, hey, this is not a supersonic plane, this is my well, Mr. Schwendener said.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Without significant fault lines? This article seems to suggest otherwise.
Crack In The World... with physics that makes "Mission To Mars" look plausible. ^_^
What about lubricating a fault with water?
Which is exactly what caused the recent earthquake at l'Aquila (Italy), and several other instances, including a very big one in China. A dam gets built, the water pressure from the lake increases deep water infiltration. If there is a fault line alongside the valley (fairly common), the fault gets lubricated and lets it rip.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
He was referring to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-38_can_opener You may whoosh me as you see fit.