Is fracking causing earthquakes

[tupac chopra]

Fracking started in Oklahoma; then Earthquakes occurred in Oklahoma. Proof that fracking causes earthquakes? No. It isn't even strong evidence that fracking causes earthquakes. But it IS a very effective way to persuade people that fracking causes earthquakes, because human beings are VERY prone to drawing that kind of erroneous conclusion from limited data.

Particularly those wacky scientists.

This elevated activity includes larger earthquakes, several with M > 5, that have caused significant damage (2, 3). To a large extent, the increasing rate of earthquakes in the mid-continent is due to fluid-injection activities used in modern energy production (1, 4, 5).

 

[Axulus]

Fracking started in Oklahoma; then Earthquakes occurred in Oklahoma. Proof that fracking causes earthquakes? No. It isn't even strong evidence that fracking causes earthquakes. But it IS a very effective way to persuade people that fracking causes earthquakes, because human beings are VERY prone to drawing that kind of erroneous conclusion from limited data.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/your-brain-is-primed-to-reach-false-conclusions/

The data seems to indicate there is a link to disposal water wells. Fracking isn't the direct cause - it's the method of disposing the waste water that fracking and other methods of drilling oil produce. It seems to involve disposing the waste water deep into a fault line:

How Fracking Disposal Wells Can Cause Earthquakes

The culprit of earthquakes near fracking sites is not believed to be the act of drilling and fracturing the shale itself, but rather the disposal wells. Disposal wells are the final resting place for used drilling fluid. These waste wells are located thousands of feet underground, encased in layers of concrete. They usually store the waste from several different wells.There are more than 50,000 disposal wells in Texas servicing more than 216,000 active drilling wells, according the the Railroad Commission. Each well uses about 4.5 million gallons of chemical-laced water, according to hydrolicfracturing.com.

“The model I use is called the air hockey table model,” says Cliff Frohlich, a research scientist at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin. “You have an air hockey table, suppose you tilt it, if there’s no air on, the puck will just sit there. Gravity wants it to move but it doesn’t because there friction [with the table surface].”

But if you turn the air on for the air hockey table, the puck slips.

“Faults are the same,” he says. If you pump water in a fault, the fault can slip, causing an earthquake.

“Scientists in my community know that injection can sometimes cause earthquakes,” Frohlich says.

The science linking manmade earthquakes to the oil and gas industry isn’t anything new.

Decades ago, researchers even found they could turn earthquakes on and off by injecting liquid into the ground, says Dr. William Ellsworth with the Earthquake Science Center of the U.S. Geological Survey.

“This was seen as validation of the effective stress model,” he told StateImpact Texas. “This is work that was published in Science magazine and many other publications.”

Recent research has found definitive links between these disposal wells and earthquakes, particularly in Texas.

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/earthquake/

 

[tupac chopra]

The data seems to indicate there is a link to disposal water wells. Fracking isn't the direct cause -

Do you have any peer reviewed research along those lines?

 

[Duke Leto]

No, earthquakes are actually caused by your Mom.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The data seems to indicate there is a link to disposal water wells. Fracking isn't the direct cause -

Do you have any peer reviewed research along those lines?

I know in Youngstown, the problem was with a deep injection well. Not fracking, but where the fracking water goes when they are done with it.

 

[dismal]

How Fracking Disposal Wells Can Cause Earthquakes

There are not "fracking disposal wells".

There are disposal wells. The word "fracking" is not a synonym for "double plus bad".

 

[Rhea]

How Fracking Disposal Wells Can Cause Earthquakes

There are not "fracking disposal wells".

There are disposal wells. The word "fracking" is not a synonym for "double plus bad".

Part of the reason it is called that is because fracking has something hazardous to dispose of whereas many other types of drilling do not have those volumes nor that toxicity. Hence, the fracking is the thing that causes the disposal need to a new degree.

 

[dismal]

There are not "fracking disposal wells".

There are disposal wells. The word "fracking" is not a synonym for "double plus bad".

Part of the reason it is called that is because fracking has something hazardous to dispose of whereas many other types of drilling do not have those volumes nor that toxicity. Hence, the fracking is the thing that causes the disposal need to a new degree.

Thanks for the tip.

But as it turns out this is not true. Disposal wells exist in the oil field with or without fracking because water high in salts is produced along with oil in oil wells.

What could be said accurately is there are places where not as many wells would not be getting drilled if it were not for fracking, but disposal wells existed in oil producing areas before the fracking boom and would continue to exist without it.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

There are not "fracking disposal wells".

There are disposal wells. The word "fracking" is not a synonym for "double plus bad".

Part of the reason it is called that is because fracking has something hazardous to dispose of whereas many other types of drilling do not have those volumes nor that toxicity. Hence, the fracking is the thing that causes the disposal need to a new degree.

True, but there is this misinterpretation that the fracking itself is causing the quakes, not the later disposal of the fracking fluids in an entirely different location.

 

[dismal]

Part of the reason it is called that is because fracking has something hazardous to dispose of whereas many other types of drilling do not have those volumes nor that toxicity. Hence, the fracking is the thing that causes the disposal need to a new degree.

True, but there is this misinterpretation that the fracking itself is causing the quakes, not the later disposal of the fracking fluids in an entirely different location.

It's not much to do with the "fracking fluids" either. It's the water. It doesn't really matter if its produced water or what they call frack-back water.

 

[barbos]

I am not too worried about small earthquakes, what I am worried about is fracking fluids which cause cancer.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I am not too worried about small earthquakes, what I am worried about is fracking fluids which cause cancer.

Fracking fluids are injected deep deep deep into ground, well below any aquifer you'd be getting water from. Greatest threat of those chemicals would be at the surface if there is a spill.

 

[dismal]

I am not too worried about small earthquakes, what I am worried about is fracking fluids which cause cancer.

Fracking fluids are injected deep deep deep into ground, well below any aquifer you'd be getting water from. Greatest threat of those chemicals would be at the surface if there is a spill.

I wouldn't recommend smoking any fracking fluids either.

 

[barbos]

I am not too worried about small earthquakes, what I am worried about is fracking fluids which cause cancer.

Fracking fluids are injected deep deep deep into ground, well below any aquifer you'd be getting water from. Greatest threat of those chemicals would be at the surface if there is a spill.

Well, people get natural gas from fracking in their water, don't they?
What prevents crap in these fluids from getting into water as well?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Fracking fluids are injected deep deep deep into ground, well below any aquifer you'd be getting water from. Greatest threat of those chemicals would be at the surface if there is a spill.

Well, people get natural gas from fracking in their water, don't they?
What prevents crap in these fluids from getting into water as well?

Some places water comes with natural gas anyway, fracking or no. I haven't heard of any confirmed cases of gas showing up only after fracking.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Fracking fluids are injected deep deep deep into ground, well below any aquifer you'd be getting water from. Greatest threat of those chemicals would be at the surface if there is a spill.

Well, people get natural gas from fracking in their water, don't they?
What prevents crap in these fluids from getting into water as well?

This is picture I took of Eternal Flame Falls near Hamburg, NY. Natural gas can exist naturally in ground water. (Just to make it clear, I'm not saying the waterfall is on fire because of gas in the water. The gas is coming from cracks in the shale bedrock. You can light the gas in multiple spots. While not a massive flame, it does produce a surprising amount of heat)

Now it is possible for natural gas to spill off into an aquifer in a poorly cased gas well. However, just because there is gas in the water doesn't automatically mean it is from a fracking well.

 

[barbos]

Well, people get natural gas from fracking in their water, don't they?
What prevents crap in these fluids from getting into water as well?

Some places water comes with natural gas anyway, fracking or no.

You don't put much effort into reading before replying, do you?

I haven't heard of any confirmed cases of gas showing up only after fracking.

Somehow it does not surprise me.

 

[barbos]

Well, people get natural gas from fracking in their water, don't they?
What prevents crap in these fluids from getting into water as well?

View attachment 2352
This is picture I took of Eternal Flame Falls near Hamburg, NY. Natural gas can exist naturally in ground water. (Just to make it clear, I'm not saying the waterfall is on fire because of gas in the water. The gas is coming from cracks in the shale bedrock. You can light the gas in multiple spots. While not a massive flame, it does produce a surprising amount of heat)

Now it is possible for natural gas to spill off into an aquifer in a poorly cased gas well. However, just because there is gas in the water doesn't automatically mean it is from a fracking well.

Well, flaming water did coincide with start of gas extraction.

 

[Rhea]

True, but there is this misinterpretation that the fracking itself is causing the quakes, not the later disposal of the fracking fluids in an entirely different location.

It's not much to do with the "fracking fluids" either. It's the water. It doesn't really matter if its produced water or what they call frack-back water.

I believe that most of the other waters don't need to be injected underground for disposal. The fracking fluids are particularly nasty and hence the injection wells are often fracking waste water. I believe the majority of the injected water is because of fracking. Hence, you can't frack without injecting stuff somewhere that'll risk earthquakes. They've tried little ponds that end up leaking out of the enclosed space and wound up with dead cows nearby.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

View attachment 2352
This is picture I took of Eternal Flame Falls near Hamburg, NY. Natural gas can exist naturally in ground water. (Just to make it clear, I'm not saying the waterfall is on fire because of gas in the water. The gas is coming from cracks in the shale bedrock. You can light the gas in multiple spots. While not a massive flame, it does produce a surprising amount of heat)

Now it is possible for natural gas to spill off into an aquifer in a poorly cased gas well. However, just because there is gas in the water doesn't automatically mean it is from a fracking well.

Well, flaming water did coincide with start of gas extraction.

Can that be cited? One of my problems with fracking is the lack of a baseline study by the Contractor.