Slashdot Mirror
Swiss Geologist On Trial For Causing Earthquakes
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that Markus Haering's company had been working with the authorities in Basel, Switzerland to try to convert the heat in deep-seated rocks into electricity, but the project was suspended in 2006 when drilling triggered earthquakes, one of them with a magnitude of 3.4, leading Haering's company to pay out $9M in damages. Haering's team planned to drill a series of holes penetrating up to 3 miles (4.8 km) underground with water being pumped onto rocks with a temperature of more than 195C. Basel's location on top of a fault line – the upper Rhine trench – had been deliberately chosen because the heat was closer to the Earth's surface. A risk assessment has since shown that the prospect of further quakes is too high to continue drilling in the city. Haering faces up to five years in prison if the judge finds he intentionally damaged property. Haering has admitted the 3.4 magnitude earthquake was stronger than he had expected and that his team 'had very little knowledge of seismicity' before starting to drill, but called the quakes 'a learning process for everyone involved.' Despite Haering's trial, the Swiss appetite for geothermal projects has not diminished. Engineers are beginning preliminary drilling in Zurich to see whether that area was suitable for a similar scheme, and St. Gallen, in eastern Switzerland, plans to start work on its own geothermal project next year. Drilling efforts are being closely watched in the US, where the energy department is sponsoring more than 120 geothermal energy projects in several states."
These villagers were scamming the poor guy. $9 million in damages from a *3.4* quake? Cripes, a bus crossing in front of my house is close to 3.4... either their houses are made from eggshells, or this is the scam of the century.
I'd feel terrible if useful research was suspended because of profiteering townsfolk.
Comment of the year
I respectfully disagree. After living in the pacific northwest and experiencing numerous earthquakes firsthand, I can say with some authority that any structure built in a tectonically active region that cannot safely handle a 3.4 magnitude earthquake was built improperly.
There were several 3.5ish earthquakes in Oregon where I lived over the last 20 years and as far as I know, broken picture frames were the extent of the damage. Geothermal energy production only makes sense in places where volcanic or tectonic activity is likely. It's not without risk either.
It seems obvious that there was no intentional earthquake caused, but that was the natural result of fracturing the fault and 3.4 hardly sounds noteworthy. However, more detailed seismic study seems warranted before moving forward with any such project in the future.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
In fact, the city should be grateful. Much better to have a magnitude 3.4 quake now, than to let the stress in the fault line accumulate until it breaks out in the form of a magnitude 8.0 quake.