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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."
This has all happened before and apparently will happen again:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/lr247770l2272741/
I recall these earthquakes were triggered by chemical weapon disposal, same plot though, dig a big deep hole and put liquid in.....
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Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
I'd feel terrible if useful research was suspended because of profiteering townsfolk.
I agree, but thats exactly the situation we have nowadays.
I myself live near St.Gallen, and I really hope they aren't going to stop doing science just because some people are afraid of it. But unfortunately, science is extremely unpopular in todays consumer society, and our government doesn't care enough to make any real progress.
I'm not familiar with Swiss law either. This may be a lost-in-translation issue. If he knew his actions would cause damage, and continued in those actions anyway, then likely he has committed some crime. The specific word "intent" may not be the right one here... "willful" may be a better translation/interpretation.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I makes me wonder... I'm no geologist by any measure, but there's obviously pressure built up in that area. Wouldn't drilling holes to break holds and release some of that plate pressure by causing smaller quakes be a preferred course of action? Would it either be that or waiting for one giant major natural shift that could cause even more damage?
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
You forgot, that if you did not know that the houses were made of eggshells, and it is generally assumed that houses are not made of eggshells, that this would rather be a nasty trap, and that the lawsuit would in that case be a scam tactic.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
The big eye-opener was the injection of fluid at Rocky Mountain Arsenal near denver causing medium size quakes in 1965. This is called induced seismicity . Its been seen around new dams (possibility in last years large Sichuan quake), geothermal drilling, irrigation fluid disposal, water table drops, etc.
Teh question really is political. Was the possibility of I.S. included in the pre-project environmental study? Did they ignore signs of it starting? Was it really caused by their activities.
Yes, I agree, indeed this is the whole point of an LLC. LLCs are horribly abused quite routinely. I often observe that chemical companies should really be charged with manslaughter for some of their pollutants. *But* a serious research project that happens to "break a few eggs" should really be let slide.
A reasonable compromise might be awarding shares in this company to the damaged cities and the Swiss national science funding body, so the company current backers face dilution as punishment, but no immediate funds change hands, and any IP becomes closer to public property.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
You can't "cause" an earthquake. They are caused by tectonic pressure. You may be able to adjust the timing of one, though.
Perhaps this man's 3.4 quake actually saved the village from having a 4.0 quake a few years later! Did anyone think of that? Perhaps they should be giving him a medal.
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I live in Southern California, near Los Angeles. Around here, at least, magnitude 3.4 quakes are hardly worth mentioning. Instead of fining this company, the city should thank them for the object lesson they provided about why you don't ignore well-known earthquake safety techniques when you're building over or near a fault line.
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Exactly, how does a 3.4 damage *anything*, there was a 3.3 here is Ohio back in April and I don't think anyone really noticed. The 1986 5.0 knocked me out of my seat in grade school (I was leaning back on two legs) but the only damage I recall was the separation of cinderblocks in one classroom causing the paint to crack, don't think they even bothered to repair it as it didn't present any kind of risk.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
If you leave it alone and a natural disaster happens, you can't really sue God. If you drill and make mini-quakes and someone's windows break, you can definitely sue the driller.
Makes me wonder. This is not the first time it's been believed that drilling triggered an earthquake. How long until you can sue because the city didn't pay for drillers to relieve pressure and major earthquake occurs.
It is a shame that this fellow is going to be on trial. He obviously had no intent to do harm. And this article does not indicate the he was irresponsible in his efforts. Sometimes bad things happen but that does not mean that someone should be punished.