Slashdot Mirror
The Arrival of Man-Made Earthquakes
An anonymous reader writes: The New Yorker has a long investigative report on a recent geological phenomenon: man-made earthquakes. The article describes how scientists painstakingly gathered data on the quakes, and then tried to find ways to communicate the results — which are quite definitive — to politicians who often have financial reasons to disbelieve them. Quoting: "Until 2008, Oklahoma experienced an average of one to two earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or greater each year. (Magnitude-3.0 earthquakes tend to be felt, while smaller earthquakes may be noticed only by scientific equipment or by people close to the epicenter.) In 2009, there were twenty. The next year, there were forty-two. In 2014, there were five hundred and eighty-five, nearly triple the rate of California.
In state government, oil money is both invisible and pervasive. In 2013, Mary Fallin, the governor, combined the positions of Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Environment. Michael Teague, whom she appointed to the position, when asked by the local NPR reporter Joe Wertz whether he believed in climate change, responded that he believed that the climate changed every day. Of the earthquakes, Teague has said that we need to learn more. Fallin's first substantive response came in 2014, when she encouraged Oklahomans to buy earthquake insurance. (However, many earthquake-insurance policies in the state exclude coverage for induced earthquakes.)"
In state government, oil money is both invisible and pervasive. In 2013, Mary Fallin, the governor, combined the positions of Secretary of Energy and Secretary of the Environment. Michael Teague, whom she appointed to the position, when asked by the local NPR reporter Joe Wertz whether he believed in climate change, responded that he believed that the climate changed every day. Of the earthquakes, Teague has said that we need to learn more. Fallin's first substantive response came in 2014, when she encouraged Oklahomans to buy earthquake insurance. (However, many earthquake-insurance policies in the state exclude coverage for induced earthquakes.)"
I dont know about you, but would you prefer a bunch of 2.0 and 3.0s, or a giant 8.5?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" --Upton Sinclair
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
I've been curious about this for a while. Is it possible that mini-earthquakes release pressure for larger ones? Are larger earthquakes caused by phenomena unrelated to smaller, perhaps more surface quakes? Do small quakes destabilize the area and make large quakes more likely? Without this information, it is difficult to understand whether this is just scaremongering by anti-fracking environmentalists.
Without this information, it is difficult to understand whether this is just scaremongering by anti-fracking environmentalists.
You asked the right questions, but you came to the wrong conclusion. The simple fact of the matter is that we don't have this information, i.e. there are no peer reviewed studies predicting or discounting any of your three possibilities with a reasonable degree of certainty. Thus, it is entirely prudent to take precautions that would prevent a possible scenario where areas could be destabilized making a large quake more likely. If that sounds like anti-fracking scaremongering, it's because it is. It just so happens that it's a completely rational fear that has absolutely nothing to do with environmentalism as it relates to groundwater contamination.
No, it's a ridiculous claim, which is why it got so much incredulous coverage. The Yellowstone Caldera is not undergoing any unusual activity, just its normal random fluctuations, and nor is it something that even a hundred Tsar Bombas could readily destabilize.
Trump's plan to get rid of Mueller appears to be 'be so guilty of so many things that Mueller works himself to death.'
So we get a nice helping of "Mankind is destroying the planet" and the chicken littles get to practice their duck and cover.
Seriously how do you genetic failures manage to get up in the morning and go out of the house ? Or do you ?
That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Why would we want poor people to die? Who is going to clean my house?
I gotta admit, that caught my eye, too.
But if they can prove it, that goes against claims by many in the state and oil industry. The oil industry would likely try to hound/silence/sue the insurance company.
Not necessarily. Industries and governments are famous for two-faced policies.
If the insurance company says that they were manmade, the government can say, "No, they weren't, but this is a civil matter and we can't interfere." And nothing will happen. Worst case, it will be tied up in courts for the next 20 years. By then, those people currently in charge will have made a ton of money and be retired somewhere outside the US.
It's kind of like the music industry claiming that a 30-second ringtone is enough the song that consumers must pay royalties while, at the same time, claiming that they weren't so they didn't have to pay the artists royalties.
1) Gallons are not a unit of energy.
2) A billion gallons of water is about the mass of a cube of rock 77 meters per side. The sort of fault that can unleash a major earthquake is hundreds of kilometers long and extends a good way through the crust.
It is the boulder. You're hitting at it with a mallet. It doesn't care.
In fact, it is significant with respect to fault forces - as demonstrated by the clear empirical link between disposal wells drilled into basement rock and seismic activity.
Link with minor quakes They are the little rocks and occasional moderate sized rock that you can actually budge with your mallet.
Trump's plan to get rid of Mueller appears to be 'be so guilty of so many things that Mueller works himself to death.'