IT'S THE FRACKING STUPID

[dherd]

Oklahoma officials on Saturday ordered oil and gas operators to shut down three dozen wastewater disposal wells following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake that tied a record as the strongest in state history.
Thousands of earthquakes have hit Oklahoma in recent years. Most have been imperceptible, but the number that can be felt — generally of magnitude 3.0 and higher — has risen significantly. Only three earthquakes of that size or stronger were recorded in 2009. Last year, the state had 907 such quakes. So far this year, there have been more than 400.

Seismologists say the quakes are caused by high-pressure injection of wastewater from oil and gas wells, both conventional ones and those that are hydraulically fractured, or fracked. As wastewater under pressure migrates into rock formations below ground, it alters stresses along old faults, allowing them to slip.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/u...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

 

[Raoul Duke MU]

It is. Sooner or later they are going to grease the wrong fault and shit is really going to hit the fan.

 

[sistersville]

I drilled for 32 years. Fracking is bad. Ban it

 

[wvkeeper(HN)]

They are not even doing fracking in the area where the earthquake was.

 

[Raoul Duke MU]

They are not even doing fracking in the area where the earthquake was.

It's the disposal wells, so it is related to fracking.

 

[wvkeeper(HN)]

The U.S. Geological Survey is non-committal on fracking actually causing earthquakes. It's a yes and no proposition.

https://www2.usgs.gov/faq/categories/9833/7711

 

[Raoul Duke MU]

The U.S. Geological Survey is non-committal on fracking actually causing earthquakes. It's a yes and no proposition.

https://www2.usgs.gov/faq/categories/9833/7711

Of course. There's a lot of politics involved, too. I do know there are individual geologists out there that are very concerned. And I think there is one USGS geologist that will probably be fired on Tuesday for tweeting Saturday that this one was directly the fault of wastewater injection...a tweet that was quickly deleted lol.

 

[GK4Herd]

I don't know a lot about it, but I've read that the drilling isn't the problem. It's injecting the waste water after they remove the oil/gas that's the problem. Someone on Reddit made the point that this might relieve the pressure lessening the chance for larger quakes, but seemed anecdotal.

 

[Raoul Duke MU]

Yes GK, it's wastewater injection that is the issue. It's both the wastewater from non-fracked wells and the water used in fracking.

 

[andy4theherd]

an injection well was built near Gassaway in 2009. it was used to dispose of brine and fracking fluids (over 10.6 million gallons) . there have been 13 "measurable" earthquakes in the area since...

https://www.google.com/?ion=1&espv=2#q=braxton county wv earthquake

 

[sistersville]

Its not the drilling,,its not the drilling. Its the chemicals they put in the water that causes problems. In relation to earthquakes thats a joke that drilling causes that. Maybe a 10,000' drilled hole that was blasted could cause a quake but thats not fracking.

 

[dherd]

Scientists and regulators agree that earthquakes like the 5.6-magnitude tremor that struck Oklahoma on Saturday, and thousands of smaller ones in recent years, have been spurred by the disposal of millions of tons of wastewater that is pumped to the surface, and then injected back into the ground, during oil and gas production. The shock last week tied a record set in 2011 in Prague, Okla., for the strongest such tremor in the state’s history.

State regulators have ordered well operators to stop wastewater injections in a 725-square-mile ellipse around the quake’s center. But they conceded that trying to prevent more quakes was an inexact science. And in Oklahoma, where oil and gas are dominant economic and political forces, any effort to regulate the industry produces an entirely different set of shocks.

Dr. Todd Halihan is a geologist and a specialist in hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, about 30 minutes by car south of the center of Saturday’s quake. He answered some questions about the quake, and the risks the state still faces.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/u...w-data-may-provide-clues.html?ref=todayspaper

 

[sistersville]

Drillers know best and 32 years of drilling here. Its got to be the water injected in the holes. Need to find a better wauy to seperate the gas from the rock

 

[herdfan429]

How many times are you going to post in this thread and say the exact same thing sisters?