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USGS Suggests Connection Between Seismic Activity and Fracking
First time accepted submitter samazon writes "According to a recently proposed abstract by the United States Geological Survey, hydraulic fracturing, or more specifically the disposal of fracking wastewater, may be directly correlated to the increase in seismic activity in the midwest. Results of the paper will be presented on April 18th, but the language of the abstract seems to imply that there is a connection. After years of controversy regarding hydrofracking including ground water contamination and disclosure of chemical solutions, the results of the study, if conclusive, could influence the cost of natural gas due to increased regulations on wastewater disposal." The actual language of the abstract leaves a fair amount of wiggle room: "While the seismicity rate changes described here are almost certainly manmade, it remains to be determined how they are related to either changes in extraction methodologies or the rate of oil and gas production."
Another reason for some people to reinforce their belief that science is anti-business and that scientists should be dismissed, if not stopped.
That would obviously be quite a breakthrough if it could be made repeatable.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
They attributed quakes to Zeus and Hera fracking.
"We don't actually know what the link is--but we're convinced one is there anyway."
Increase our budget so that we may study this more.
Got Code?
... but can't yet prove causation. Still, the correlation is significant enough to justify significant caution in the continued use of fracking, and to merit further study on causation. As others have noted, this has the potential to be useful geoengineering, but like many discoveries, it has the potential to be very dangerous. A healthy dose of caution is warranted.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
Hydralic fracturing has been applied in many setting since hte late 1940s. Much research, by USGS, BLM et al. in the 1970s established induced seismic activity associated with drilling-mining hydralic fracting activities.
The trouble with the current "enlightned" study is a lack of knowledge of how to search bookstacks, those in a Library, to find the printed USGS bullitens, circulars and research papers since they have not been scanned, parsed and made searchabel by electronic database search technologies.
Thus the Lost Discoveries of Hydralic Fracturing awaite re-discovery by our fearless intrepid internaughts.
Seriously, unless these earthquakes are causing damage, what's the issue with fracking causing earthquakes? It's interesting science I guess, but to suggest that it should impact energy policy? This study is for earthquakes M>3, when damage in the US isn't likely until M>5.
In other news, a connection has been found with talking and vibrations in the air. The real question is whether or not this promotes large earthquakes?
The earthquakes are all minor but groundwater being poisoned in areas without back up supplies is serious. They keep talking about how there's a layer of rock protecting the groundwater but the fracking shatters that layer of protective rock. It's hard to argue with tap water being flammable. Great we get 10 to 30 years of natural gas and the residents get to shower with bottled water for the next few hundred years. Some of the chemicals used are cancer causing so guess who gets stuck with that bill? Not the gas companies. If it's safe prove it's safe before you frack half the country. This got rammed through with zero oversight. Everyone can say who cares about the midwest but guess what that's where much of your food is grown. Also one of the hottest ares for potentially fracking is the very place New York City gets much of it's water from. Cheap gas may end up as very expensive water. This is about the rich getting richer, period. They were already getting plenty of gas out of the fields this is about getting 3X to 4X as much thus increasing profits. Who gets stuck with the environmental costs in the end? The tax payers. Which do we need more, water or natural gas? Well you can't raise corn and wheat or drink natural gas so I have to come down on the side of water. The gas companies don't care about groundwater because they make their money off gas and not groundwater. If they could charge a $100 a barrel for groundwater it'd be a very different story.
Every rigorous study of fracking has found it to be safe.
And honestly the notion of fracking causing earth quakes is absurd. Just think of the mass we're talking about here. How exactly is a relatively small amount of water being pumped into the ground supposed to destabilize TECTONIC PLATES... It's like suggesting peeing into a hurricane is going to divert the storm.
And just because it has to be said, you know that anti fracking documentary where they show the guy lighting his well water on fire. Well, they were able to do that before the fracking. Look it up. It's been an issue in that area for a long time. They even have special well valves just to avoid the issue. So like most of the michael moore type documentaries... it's crap.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
...five more reports claiming that fracking has nothing at all to do with seismic events which will serve as the justification for the upcoming change of leadership of the USGS.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
After years of controversy regarding hydrofracking including ground water contamination and disclosure of chemical solutions, the results of the study, if conclusive, could influence the cost of natural gas due to increased regulations on wastewater disposal.
- all this stuff is BS. There is no contamination of groundwater with chemicals, the chemicals are sent through when the casing is built already, there is no groundwater at the depths at which the chemicals are released either.
OK, so this was one way gov't increased production prices and got its bribes, what now?
According to a recently proposed abstract by the United States Geological Survey, hydraulic fracturing, or more specifically the disposal of fracking wastewater, may be directly correlated to the increase in seismic activity in the midwest.
- aha, so releasing gas from under the ground and replacing it with some liquid causes seismic activity? Well, I don't know, it sounds wrong, but I do not know.
However I do know that natural gas is a relatively cheap form of energy, production of which in fact does decrease prices for gas in US, because it's very hard to move gas from the continent to another one to sell (possible, but difficult, it's not oil, it has to be compressed - liquefied first).
I suggest that what USGS is after is a way to get some bribe money, first from government for this study, then from the industry. After all, that's how many of the professional scientists were funded during the time of anti-smoking movement.
You can't handle the truth.
and I can confirm this
Human activities (except for nuclear ones) cannot cause serious earthquakes unless there is already sufficient tectonic tension (probably not the right term, I am not a geologist) in the region. I believe that fracking can cause an earthquake but only as a trigger. Just like a firecracker can trigger an avalanche, provided the right conditions for avalanche are already there. In that sense, those earthquakes are "benign" because those regions earthquake-prone anyways; the longer the period of building tension, the worse is the inevitable earthquake that releases it.
The greens were all over natural gas until just a few years ago, until suddenly natural gas is the new enemy.
We've been fracking since 1947 and NOW it's a big deal?
Oh yeah, since natural gas prices have dropped and it's sustainable until the rest of my lifetime, now it's the new evil. Seriously?
(my home runs on natural gas, which WAS clean? no? My provider dropped by prices by 1.5% in Nov and again by 5% in Oct)
Seriously, I think they just want us to burn down forests and use wood for heat.
If it's going on a very long way below where the groundwater is then that is a LOT of protective rock instead of the idea of a wafer thin and fragile layer of protective rock.
Hopefully since it's far easier to do horizontal and other directional drilling than it used to be we'll be able to put the fracking discussion in the past anyway.
And this is really old news. It has been believed that fracking and seismic activity were related for a while now. I could have told you that anyways. Hadn't had earthquakes in my area for decades (probably close to the century mark, but I am too lazy to look it up for sure, and then it was only like one every few decades), but since they started drilling here a couple of years ago, we seem to get one every few months - or rather, one that is measurable. I think the number of really small quakes is actually considerably higher, just too small to register. We have a suspended projector at the chruch. Have for years. Never had any issues at all until they started pumping gas out of our area. Now, about once every couple of weeks, you will see the image on the screen just start shaking very slightly. First I thought it may be because we had the speakers too loud, but this sometimes happens before and after service, or in times of silence during the service. With a projected image 10 feet tall from a projector suspended from an arm attached to the roof of the building, this is probably the only reason I notice them at all - I mean, you really don't see lights shake or anything like that. Figured out that the shaking seems to coincide with the times that they are actually fracking in the area. So, yeah, I think that it actually causes probably more seismic activity than is actually being reported, its just that its on scales too small for most people to even notice.
http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/towns/northwich.shtml
Salt mining caused houses to collapse sometimes 30 miles from the mines, and even then only after 10 years. It was unimaginably hard on the householders - not much welfare back in those days, and the mine owners similarly wanted proof before doing anything about it. The connection has been fully established now, but the horse bolted that entirely-man made disaster a long time ago.
Hi, I'm posting from the soviet republic of France, guided by the Great and Beloved Leader Nicolas Sarkozy, friend of your former socialist président George Bush. Here, we are fighting against fracking for a couple of years. Of course, we rely on brave american activists for our information, cause your still ahead of us in terms of pollution and destructing environment, but it's even better when scientists bring their share.
As a Mathematician, Scientist and Engineer I am certainly becomming highly skeptical of a LOT of MODERN RESEARCH which is often sloppy, subject to investigator bias and depends on un-verified Computer Models. The tide of bilge comming from the Universities demonstrates that something has gone very wrong with research methodologies.
It is rare too see careful conservative work like CERN's super-luminal neutrinos.
Only 11% of papers published in Clinical Oncology are reproducible. In "climate science" the mistakes and misuse of models amounts to fraud!
The "buy a conclusion" model of research funding has become endemic.
Greens/malthusians/environmentalists are particularly prone to this trick.
Once again Government and Politics have destroyed a centuaries old working system in the name of (post-)modernism which is why we have never paid more and got less for our research dollar.
MFG, omb
nt
It's not really a problem until the Koch family says it's a problem. Besides, if Oklahoma gets turned into a giant sinkhole would anyone really care?
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
don't frack with earth.
It's not about fracking, presto-chango, it's about brine injection wells. If they can't be trusted on that minor detail, why should we trust them on anything else?
A you need "scientific study" for this ? By definition cracking rock under the stress is a seismic activity.
JAM
I notice that the earth moves whenever I frack.
He says he refuses to believe fracking can cause earthquakes, because there's "absolutely no evidence" for it - yet the man is also an unapologetic fundamentalist christian... talk about a severe case of cognitive dissonance.
Listen - Fracking is causing it. There's no uncertainty about it. It's unregulated and hurting people.
On the radio, a state senator stated that they don't even know how many sites or their location (sadly,
his ultimate message was that the money was still green, so why move fast on something like that).
This is serious business. People should be very alarmed.
The chemicals pushed into the water table to perform the fracking are dangerous - don't be fooled that
it's "mostly water". It takes a small amount of a dangerous substance to make a lot of water toxic.
It's a future Love Canal for someone...
There exists many studies from the 70's hidden in the archives of the oil industry stating that earthquakes in California can be directly linked to injecting water and chemicals into wells to surface Petroleum.
The reason is that Coal has multiple methods of being converted to methane (natural gas). Right now, it can not compete with NG being so low. However, if it goes up, then Coal->CH4 becomes very profitable. More importantly, it is good to have competition between methods. Now, what is needed is increased demand. Basically, we need to pass NAT GAS act. Sadly, the neo-cons are fighting it. They scream for markets and national security, but then fight both, unless it helps their elections and lines their pockets.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
'hydraulic fracturing, or more specifically the disposal of fracking wastewater' Generally speaking there is no difference between normal water and the water that comes out of a well after a hydraulic fracturing operation. It's water. Water doesn't compress under pressure, so it's a cheap way of fracturing a formation so oil and gas can come to the surface to be used by people who don't like to cut wood to heat their homes or ride horses to work. I work in the CBM industry. I send 10's of thousands of barrels of water per day down three disposal wells. It is my happy duty to report a complete absence of perceivable earthquakes in the Salt Creek area of Wyoming. Let's go ahead and say that injecting water into a formation does produce a little earthquake now and then, and who is really injured? Ladies and gentlemen, put your wallets away. There is no consequential threat to anyone in spite of what the 'scare the living shit out of people for money' industry is saying. This is just about money. Environmentalism is a high dollar industry that feeds off the gullible nature of people who have come to have ignorant contempt for the very industries that cloth them, feed then and keep them warm. How much did this inconclusive report by the USGS (based on data that reaches way back in geological time to the 1970s) cost the taxpayer? The only thing you can be sure of is there will be a communal request to greatly increase funding to study this 'crisis' by the good people of the USGS. (an any other parasitic branch of government that can take advantage of the situation)
'I don't know what it's called. I just know the sound it makes, when it takes a man's life.' ~ Four Leaf Tayback
As long as geology and the petrol industry in particular, ignores Thomas Gold's ideas and insist that earthquakes are caused by plates getting jiggly, the fracking case will always remain a mystery, just as earthquakes will remain impossible to forecast.
What is absolutely certain is that the companies like to keep their patent fracking ingredients secret because it is a well known fact that they know exactly what to put down for the best results and has absolutely nothing to do with bio-hazards and getting paid to get rid of agents orange and hydrazine etc.
And there will be absolutely no nicotinamides put in when they ban that too neither.
Absolute gospel that is.
As for pig shit and spent orthophosphates from sheep dip and all the other stuff nobody has ever accused them of using, they never use that too, neither.
What they do use but won't tell anyone, so they can get more money out of the wells only they have access to and not their competitors who (as everybody knows) sneak in at night and steal all their profits when nobody is looking, is that they condense baby tears and puppy breath to put down there along with angel kisses and all their love.
Get your tyke-sized rocketships ready, preppers!
Or it could be due to the fact that the Earth is still ringing from the Japan quake and that constructive interference patterns in the waves just happen to peak in the midwest. It's truly sad that what counts for science these days is choosing a conclusion first and then seeking data that backs it up while conveniently ignoring data that doesn't.
Nothing we do comes without an element of risk and if you got rid of all modern technology it would be even riskier. Even our poor wouldn't consider living in the squalor of the rich kings and queens in old Europe. True they were rich and had an expected life span about half of ours.
I worked in science at various levels and several fields most of my life and it's not just the right. Working in CS I had to deal with people on both sides that were just as bad.
Wikipedia disagrees with you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing
The fluid injected into the rock is typically a slurry of water, proppants, and chemical additives. Additionally, gels, foams, and compressed gases, including nitrogen, carbon dioxide and air can be injected. There are more than 50 types of fluids that can potentially be used as fracturing fluids, following are the fracturing fluids used at more than 95% of Fracturing jobs world wide:-
Conventional linear gels
These gels are Cellulose derivatives (CMC,HEC,CMHEC, HPCMHEC) , Guar or its derivatives (HPG,CMHPG) based, with other chemicals providing the necessary chemistry for the desired results.
Borate-crosslinked fluids
These are guar based fluids cross-linked with Boron ions (from aqueous borax/boric acid solution). These gels have higher viscosity at pH 9 onwards and are used to carry proppants. After the fracturing job the pH is reduced to (3 - 4) so that the cross-links are broken and the gel is less viscous and is therefore pumped out.
Organometallic-crosslinked fluids
Zirconium, Chromium, Antimony, Titatanium Salts are known to cross-link the guar based gels. The cross-linking mechanism is not reversible. So once the proppant is pumped down along with the cross-linked gel and the fracturing part is done. The gels are broken down with appropriate breakers.[3] .
Aluminium phosphate-ester oil gels
Aluminium phosphate and ester oils are slurried to form cross-linked gel. These are one of first known gelling systems. They are very limited in used currently, because of formation damage and the difficulty in clean-up.
Chemical concentrations run at about 2% per unit, enough to render otherwise potable water toxic.
You're either lying, ignorant or both.
Ur trolling hypocrite bs caught up 2U -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2772023&cid=39612033 and what a damned hypocrite u r too, troll. Unbelievable. Pot calling the kettle black if I ever saw it, lol!
Ur trolling hypocrite bs caught up 2U -> http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2772023&cid=39612033 and what a damned hypocrite u r too, troll. Unbelievable: Pot calling the kettle black if I ever saw it, lol!