Seismological Society of America Claims Fracking Reactivated Ohio Fault

eldavojohn writes There have been suspicions that fracking has caused minor earthquakes in Ohio but last year seismic data recorded by the Earthscope Transportable Array was analyzed by the Seismological Society of America using template matching and has resulted in a new publication and press release making the statement that Hilcorp Energy's fracking in Poland Township in March of 2014 "did not create a new fault, rather it activated one that we didn't know about prior to the seismic activity." The earthquakes occurred in the Precambrian basement and lead the researchers to posit that further unknown faults may be activated by fracking. The press release ends with urging for "close cooperation among government, industry and the scientific community as hydraulic fracturing operations expand in areas where there's the potential for unknown pre-existing faults."

Comments

Good luck with that.

[gstoddart]

Despite there being no published science about its safety, and despite evidence that it is actually polluting wells and ground water ... it will keep happening.

Because government officials are all paid heavily by the oil and gas industry to make damned sure they can do anything they want to, right up to tearing up private property because they want to.

These short sighted clowns only care about profits, and don't give a damn about anything else.

I can't imagine government is going to start reigning in corporations any time soon ... which means all laws and policy will continue to be so skewed in favor of corporations as to be laughable.

America is nothing but an oligarchy these days.

Re:Good luck with that.

[ganjadude]

I could have sworn that the video of burning sink water was proven to be a fake. not in the sense that it didnt actually happen, but on the basis that it had nothing to do with fracking??

Re:Good luck with that.

[Anonymous Coward]

"America is nothing but an oligarchy these days."

When was it not? The few people in power have always controlled everything, not just in America, but everywhere. And it will always be like that.

Re:Good luck with that.

[aaron4801]

Increased seismic activity, sure. But has there been any documented seismic damage? A bunch of 2-mile-deep 2.0 earthquakes are not even going to be felt by more than the most sensitive equipment. If there is a larger fault in the area, then frequent, small releases of energy are good for man-made structures on the surface by not letting the fault store up too much energy. It's when fault stops moving that you should get scared.

Re:Good luck with that.

[SydShamino]

They (the owners of the company, not the pseudo-person company itself) would happily agree to those terms, knowing that they are protected by investor and bankruptcy laws, and eventually their own deaths and inheritance laws. Those terms are thus meaningless. Long-term environmental protection must be done through preventative regulation, not through post-damage punishment, as the time scales ensure those responsible cannot be adequately punished.

I'm not making any claim as to whether fracking causes long-term environmental damage (though I'm happy it's not happening under my house), just pointing out that if it did, reactive punishment wouldn't stop it.

what if

[ganjadude]

what if causing a number of small earthquakes prolongs the release of a large one. Less energy is being pent up so the slippage should do less damage

But ... but ... gas is below 2 bucks man!

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Why blame government officials? Gas is below 2 bucks a gallon. A significant majority of the Americans would support fracking even if you prove fracking is adding carcinogens in their cereal and in the baby formula. They would think it is a price worth paying to get gas below 2$. You and I might disagree. But we would be in the minority.

We seem to have done a piss poor job of explaining the benefits of clean air and clean water to our fellow citizens.

Re:But ... but ... gas is below 2 bucks man!

[gstoddart]

The middle east producers are most certainly NOT dropping prices.

The prices are dropping because there's a lot of it around, and because whatever vagaries in the market say the price goes down.

What the middle east producers are doing is refusing to cut outputs in the face of dropping prices, because they have tons of cash and don't care if it puts American producers out of business.

OPEC doesn't set the price, just output levels.

Goes both ways

[SuperKendall]

Despite there being no published science about its safety

At this point there is enough evidence to know it's generally safe. Even in the case of this unknown fault, the worst earthquake was 3.0 - and it was only one well corresponding to activation of the fault, the other nearby wells were fine (read the link).

despite evidence that it is actually polluting wells and ground water

What "evidence"? To date all claims have been proved false.

I can't imagine government is going to start reigning in corporations any time soon

People like jobs.

Well it has bee nice knowing you guys

[Anonymous Coward]

because as soon as fracking triggers the yellowstone caldera we are all done.