New Concerns Over Earthquakes In Oklahoma Near Vast Oil-Storage Facility (nytimes.com)

HughPickens.com writes: The NY Times reported on October 14, 2015 that a magnitude 4.5 quake struck Saturday afternoon about three miles northwest of the Cushing Hub, a sprawling tank farm that is among the largest oil storage facilities in the world, now holding 53 million barrels of crude with a capacity for 85 million barrels. The Cushing oil hub stores oil piped from across North America until it is dispatched to refineries. The Department of Homeland Security has gauged potential earthquake dangers to the hub and concluded that a quake equivalent to the record magnitude 5.7 could significantly damage the tanks and a study by Dr. Daniel McNamara study concludes that recent earthquakes have increased stresses along two stretches of fault that could lead to quakes of that size. "It's the eye of the storm," says Dana Murphy, vice chairman of the state's oil and gas regulatory body, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.

"When we see these fault systems producing multiple magnitude 4s, we start to get concerned that it could knock into higher magnitudes," says Daniel McNamara, author of a paper published online that a large earthquake near the storage hub "could seriously damage storage tanks and pipelines." "Given the number of magnitude 4s here, it's a high concern."

Comments

Re:Little quakes

[Anonymous Coward]

It's both. It always depends on what the composition of materials around the fault are made of, and what forces and materials are being introduced along the fault. In this case, we are introducing tons of lubrication and material into the ground and causing the fault(s) to shift.

If you haven't listened to this beautiful song illustrating what fracking in Oklahoma has done to earthquake frequency, you should. Each sound is an earthquake and the frequency increase from 2008 to 2013 increasing with fracking, has led them to ditch their stance that fracking doesn't cause earthquakes.

https://soundcloud.com/thisisreveal/the-oklahoma-shakes

Spill concerns

[fyngyrz]

You do realize if there's a major spill, the problem can extend beyond loss of oil and money, don't you?

We can hope the berms and so forth work, but in the case of an earthquake, the ground's integrity can be disrupted, so it's not a sure bet by any means.

There is certainly reason for concern.

As for Slashdot's choice of stories, meh. Don't like the headline, don't read.

Re:Time to cut funding for research

[DarkOx]

Liberals don't hate poor people the love then. They love how dependent they are, and the love how good hand outs sound to someone struggling to get by, they love the way that buys votes.

The trick is keeping poor people poor while keeping up the appearance of trying to help them. Strategies include.

1) High property taxes ( because it looks like the wealthy pay more but really when you break it out along in come its pretty regressive)

These support expensive but deliberately ineffective education programs where failure is rewarded and indoctrination over independent thought is the order of the day.

2) Secret poor taxes. Taxes on things that the poor spend disproportionate income on, gasoline, heating oil, etc. This also includes Sin taxes, alcohol, cigarets, lotteries.

3) The passage of ever more regulation and barriers to entry. Can't have entrepreneurs, no we need 'workers' who will remain wage slaves to existing business their entire lives.

4) Pushing for inflation to discourage savings, real independence comes from having savings. Ensuring your savings are always loosing value unless you hand them over to someone wealthier to gamble with is a huge part of their game. Don't argue but but they're the ones passing legislation to stop the gambling not they are not. Dodd Frank does exactly nothing, Wall Street played their part and made fuss for the cameras but its totally business as usual. Its lefties that always want to raise the debt ceiling and do more 'stimulus'. Government debt is a big source of money supply expansion the usual driver of inflation. This isn't lost on the PTBs.

The troubling thing is most conservatives and fascists alike have also taken up these strategies as a way to hold onto their own power.

Re:These happen every day

[dywolf]

But not in OK.
And that's the point.

We went from an average of 10 quakes a year BF (before fracking) to over 900 in this year alone.
And the year aint over yet.

we can't even determine the new average yet, cause each year has been higher than the previous one in an ever increasing trend.

And youre estimate of what causes dmg is off too.
House foundations (almost always slabs here) are cracking, requiring (very expensive) shoring/piering. Brick siding is falling off houses. Particularly older houses, which is the majority in the state (not a big new home market, most current dwellings date from the 70s/80s on average).

And we're talking about quakes in the 3's doing that.

and the article is talking about a facility located near the swarms.
a facility that was never designed with seismic activity in mind, because we don't have those rules in OK like they do in CA.

So no its not FUD, but your post is rather ignorant.