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Earthquakes are caused by hydraulic fracturing

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If you have been following my blog posts about how earthquakes follow fracking around, this is not news to you. To all the rest…

Oklahoma’s quakes have not now been blamed on fracking and so have the quakes in UK.

Please see update here

From Greenwire, not yet available online:
Okla. quakes associated with fracking

Paul Voosen, E&E reporter
Published: Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Hydraulic fracturing may be in for a bumpy ride.

A previously unreported study out of the Oklahoma Geological Survey has found that hydraulic fracturing may have triggered a swarm of small earthquakes earlier this year in Oklahoma. The quakes, which struck on Jan. 18 in a rural area near Elmore City, peaked at magnitude 2.8 and caused no deaths or property damage.

The study, currently being prepared for peer review, follows news today that Cuadrilla Resources, a British shale gas developer, has found that it was “highly probable” its fracturing operations caused minor quakes of magnitude 2.3 and 1.5 in Lancashire, England (Greenwire, Nov. 2). The Cuadrilla study could complicate the expansion of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in risk-averse Europe, where France has already banned the practice.


UK firm says shale fracking caused earthquakes

A spokesman said on Wednesday tremors were triggered by pumping vast quantities of water at high pressure 3 kilometres underground through drill holes in a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which is designed to prop open shale rocks and release trapped gas.

Unlike the US where the Big Gas Mafia is king, the UK has suspended fracking.

For more on earthquakes click HERE.

About Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.

Comments

  1. Jennifer Jadeed says

    Funny that you wrote this 3 days before we get with all these earthquakes…coincidence? I think not!

  2. D Martin says

    If you have ever worked in NG production , you will know what cause these quakes. its not so much fracking although that does have something to do with it. Just walk onto a production plant where 6 giant compressors the size of house’s are sucking gas out of the ground in huge volumes, we are talking about millions of cubic feet of gas in seconds. Now remember that gas is under pressure. its holding up the earth above it, and even though the areas are compressed into crevices, and layers that trap the gas, the pressures are enormous. Now compound that buy sucking the gas out, like a vacuum packer does a steak. The earth has to collapse, and that’s what does it , although fracking just creates the crevices and voids that then collapse when the compressors create the vacuum

  3. D Martin says

    Now , lately the NG producers have began a new experiment here is the flash movie selling the operation from Schlumberger, of how they frak and Halliburton.

    http://www.slb.com/services/additional/carbon.aspx?entry=ad_google_carbon&gclid=CJz9ot6poqwCFQxihwodeEriBw#

    the same process is used to inject CO2 back into the ground, Now this may seem like a good thing but , it has its draw backs, the same pollution to aquifers is going to happen. The test that have been done actually use satellite to measure how far the ground rise’s, this proves that the storage is compressing the waste gas into the underground vault. the fact that these 5 acre site are expanding so that they can be measured from space. have also proved that sucking gas out can lower the ground the same way, but they don’t tell or show that.

    • TXsharon says

      No, they avoid the subsidence topic at all costs. Thank you for this information. I agree that the CO2 storage will be another epic fail.

  4. D Martin says

    Ive been working the gas fields for a long time, every new discovery like the newest in North Dakota, and the last in Pennsylvania, will have new earthquakes, as has happened in Texas and Oklahoma, and they will get bigger and more frequent as the production goes on. I have personally seen people turn their water on and gas fumes come out , you can even light their drinking water with a lighter.

    • TXsharon says

      I have seen the same. I have a video of gas bubbling out of the ground and we lit the bubbles. I know some people in North Dakota who are suffering horribly from the toxic fumes and they have bubbles coming up in their creek. Their animals drank from the creek and they are now dying.

      Thank you for your honesty. Please be careful out there. I was recently contacted by a young woman whose husband worked in the Gas Patch. He just died from lymphoma and a brain tumor. He was directly involved in fracking and flowback operations.

  5. D martin says

    actually the reason i even found this site, is we had a earthquake last night near Miami Oklahoma about 10:55pm 11/6/2011, but have heard nothing about it. So was searching the internet and i have found people 30 miles away that also say it happened at the same time and even posted it on Face book.

  6. R.D. says

    Great blog! I just wanted to let you know that you should change the line: “Oklahoma’s quakes have not been blamed on fracking and so have the quakes in UK.” (not–> now)

  7. Rose says

    What can we as ordinary citizens do to protest the use of hydrolic fracking and stop it’s use? Don’t oil and gas companies care that they are destroying the environment? How can we in Oklahoma sit by and watch this happen? Or anywhere else for that matter.

  8. D Martin says

    http://www.koamtv.com/story/15976761/earthquakes-have-residents-on-edge This is a link to a local news story about the earthquakes. It says “an Oklahoma geologist says the latest quakes are more likely a natural occurrence and are located on a well-known fault line.” but then says “Researchers say earthquakes linked to fracking are also much smaller than the recent tremors felt in Oklahoma.”, so the geologists do admit that the fracking does cause earthquakes, just not these, wonder how much money goes to their studies from the NG industry?.

  9. TXsharon says

    Oh, and here’s another interesting thing from a commenter on another earthquake post. http://www.texassharon.com/2011/11/05/six-fracking-earthquake-notices-from-oklahoma-last-night/

    Robert Finne November 9, 2011 at 5:39 pm [edit]

    Man, they really come out of the woodwork to argue that they cannot POSSIBLY be causing earthquakes.
    We went through the same thing the last few years in Arkansas and got the same reaction from the industry cheerleaders.
    It was determined by AGS and CERI that 4 injection wells showed a direct correlation between seismic activity and well injections. The wells were closed and seismic activity dropped by over 75% immediately.

    I attended a STRONGER rule review in Arkansas yesterday. Earthquakes and injection wells were a hot topic. One of the reviewers asked AOGC director Larry Bengal where the fluid that we used to inject was being disposed of.

    SURPRISE!
    His answer was it was now being trucked to Oklahoma and put into their injection wells.

  10. HA HA HA says

    What an incredible bunch of inflammatory BS!!! You probably believe that we never went to the moon that it was all done on a Hollywood sound stage and that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone DUH!!!

  11. Doug says

    How little people know about the Truth in Hydraulic Fracturing. I have been Actually performing Frac Work for over 30 years and I find it extremely funny that Earth Quakes as well as Natural Gas being found in Aquifers is being blamed on Hydraulic fracturing of an Oil and or Gas Formation.
    First look at teh True depth of the wells that you are talking about. The depths you are giving out why may be accurate for the total length of the well bore, but in all actuallity how deep is the well. More than Likely it is between 5 and 8 thousand feet in Vertical Depth, then the well bore goes horizontal in the producing formation, So true Depth is more like 8 thousand feet. The other issue dealing Natural Gas in the Aquifers, have any of you ever worked in or been around a Mine of any kind?? One of the best Water Producing Aquifers in the U.S. is the Coal Seam. We mine Coal from that seam which produces Methane Gas already and we pull water out of that same formation or one above it. So why would there be natural gas in the Water.
    One last thing to ponder folks, When these wells are drilled and the Casing is cemented into teh well bore, if and I do mean IF the Casing is Cemented in as it should be, there is no way that Gas and or Oil could ever get into the Aquifers as the Cement Bond between the different formations and the casing makes a seal. If this seal does not exist or is compromised then you have the possibility of Gas and or Oil migrating between teh Casing and the Well Bore and causing Contamination into the Aquifers. Don’t blame all of these issues on Fracturing if you do not know what you are talking about. Blaming Natural occuring Earth Quakes on Fracturing is absolutely Stupid. Oh Yes Folks, there have been earth Quakes in Oklahoma since before the Whiteman ever settled there. Ya All might want to look into the Facts First and Foremost, become educated before you point fingers. Kinda Like Obama Care. Bet tya all thought that was gonna be a good thing too. Ever check to see how much YOUR insurance went up since that went into place… Most Gullable animals in the world… Wake up America!

    • TXsharon says

      Another industry insider spouting the industry talking points and ignoring reality.

      Doug works for Halliburton. ISP: Halliburton Company

      It’s hard to get a man to understand something when his paycheck depends on him not understanding. ~Upton Sinclair

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