Yeah. It's like the ratio of the volume of the human body to a single particle of Ebola virus. Insignificant.
Geez.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 07/03/2010 4:10:34 PM PDT by EBH
Do an experiment for me. Take a balloon, inflate it. Get two books and place one on each side of the balloon opposite each other. Now deflate the balloon and notice what happens to the books. The books shift towards each other.
The massive pressurized oil and methane reserve now blowing out south of the Louisiana coast is just like a the deflating balloon. As this reserve empties a huge cavern is being created under the gulf floor. Usually these caverns are back filled with seawater as the oil is removed to stop a catastrophic collapse and make extracting the oil easier. Unfortunately the BP blow out is not being equalized in this manner.
Could the shifting walls of the oil cavern cause the earthquake swarms in Arkansas? Will the quakes grow in magnitude as more oil and methane is released? Could the shifting wall of the oil cavern destabilize the New Madrid fault? How big of a tsunami would be created if the oil cavern collapses?
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalistnews.com ...
The most recent earthquake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey on Thursday between Springdale and Rogers. It measured a 2.3 on the Richter Scale. Residents however didn’t report feeling the quake.
On May 20, a 2.6 earthquake was recorded near XNA in Benton County. And 2.5 quake shook the same area on April 25th.
In Central Arkansas, 36 earthquakes have been reported since June 2. The largest was a 3.3 on the Richter Scale.
Zero would have a real mess on his hands if that happens...
It’s not a cavern of oil. It’s oil locked inside rock and the humongous pressure squeezes the oil out through the well. Water replaces the oil squeezed out.
This is exactly the theory behind a devastating earthquake in Coalinga, California.
The New Madrid fault last had a major quake in the early 1800’s. It would be felt in Texas if another occurred.
That is what should happen under normal conditions. The report states it. Since this is not normal...what is back filling and is it fast enough?
The last one made church bells ring in Boston.
Check it out. http://quake.ualr.edu/public/nmfz.htm
Mere coincidence.
Strategerist, let’s hear your comment.
Ground water?
The type of soil involved would make it felt for a long way.
Zero would have a real opportunity on his hands if that happens...
I think this makes about as much sense as the left-wing wacko’s claim that Katrina was caused by global warming. But that’s a line they used, so what goes round, comes round...
Is there a FReeper Geologist around???
While I don't think he's a geologist, I do know he extensively researched the matter, and it's projected effects.
There is no cavern. The oil and gas is in sedimentary rock. Does the author also worry about Guam tipping over?
The Ozark plateau was pushed up by vulcanism. Igneous rocks are not aquifers that carry oil or water. There are sedimenary rocks on the top of the plateau, but that would not affect rocks 900+ feet above sea level.
Here is the USGS website;
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/
If you want to see a real earthquake cluster go look at the Imperial Valley which at times has shown over 1400 earthquakes showing for a week’s timeframe. That began long before the gulf blowout.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US10/27.37.-120.-110.php
There is no water replacing the oil and gas in this case. Everything seems to be unidirectional right now.
I think they are going to have the new CAP in place sooner than expected.
The new CAP is now sitting on the bottom while they attach the hoses to it.
The old CAP has completely lost any seal it had, and it appears to be leaking about as much as it was when the CAP was off. The CAP has been bouncing around for at least two days.
Here are two relevant links:
http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2002/11nov/rift_zone.cfm
http://culturelifesciencenews.blogspot.com/2006/02/52-earthquake-dead-center-in-gulf-of.html
Well blow-outs like this have been uncommon but they have happened and they have been dealt with.
A bit overheated. In other news, I see they’re doing brisk business in “evacuation kits”. Or at least trying to.
Sometimes, the models and metaphors just don't do justice to the reality. First, EVEN IF the "cavern" were deflating, the volume escaping is infinitesimal compared to the volume of the earth. Second, as another poster has said, there is no "cavern", its rock, lots and lots of it, porous rock and strata...
This is retarded. It can only be considered by the numerically illiterate. The volume of oil in the gulf leak is about 1 quadrillionth the volume of water in the gulf. If one were to try to descibe the volume in terms of earthen land mass it would be an order of magnatude less significant.
Someone recently told me that we should expect a massive earthquake in Michigan because we haven’t had one for millions of years.
I gave up on trying to explain the stability of the region. There is an ancient rift valley under lake superior but the southern part of the state sits in a vast stone bowl that can be seen running north northeast from Greenbay, along the southern edge of the upper peninsula, curving down southward to create Georgian bay in Ontario.
Geology is pretty cool and I wish more people paid some attention to it.
The source doesn’t say, but I’m guessing the unidentified author is no geologist. One could further speculate that the little illustration with a balloon and books demonstrate a profound ignorance of geology on his/her part.
( sarc.)
Geologically speaking, all the oil extracted from the gulf over the past 50 years is a pimple as well.
Correct
Stop living in de Nile. It’s your turn for a massive earthquake. ;^)
Blowouts like this at that depth and pressure have never happened. This is all new stuff.
Ah, another deNileist shows up. You will believe in Balloon Earth Theory when the whole thing goes Pop!
I believe it’s sensationalist BS. First of all, the thousands of other Gulf oil rigs remove more as a matter of course. The leak site has lost something like 2% of its oil so far.
Is it causing a seismologic crisis? Very unlikely...
It amazes me why the media never mentions the blowout only 650 miles to the west that blew oil for 9 months.
I guess that is because it was shallow and Mexican so that oil is different then BP oil and did not destroy the environment as a result....
But then we are building electric cars powered by coal to replace petroleum powered cars for 3-4 times the cost.
And we call others stupid.
It is not all new stuff. The technology of deep water drilling rests on over 100 years of oil drilling technology and experience. There was a first-ever on land well blowout. There was a first-ever shallow water well blowout. There was a first-ever well fire.
Bingo! If this accident had not happened BP would have plugged this well and started drilling a bunch more into this reservoir and produced more oil than is escaping from this disaster each day.
*ping*
They knew it would be different so they came prepared with robots. They appear to have not counted on everything getting iced up with methane so quickly.
BRTW, oil drilling technology rests on a base of knowledge built up by the Chinese in the Sung Dynasty period (9th/13th century AD ~ more or less). Discover has a great program where they visit the old derricks to see what was going on ~ a near miss with industrialization!
Yeah. It's like the ratio of the volume of the human body to a single particle of Ebola virus. Insignificant.
Geez.
You make my point.
Well drilling at normal atmospheric pressure is an ancient art. Well drilling at the sort of pressure found at one mile’s ocean depth is really recent ~
Bookmark
I heard that what’s going on at the Horizon site is that it’s a fracture and there are multiple plumes besides the one at the well head. But I can’t make any claim to the veracity of it.
The whole thing has been so politicized that I don’t know what is true. In an election year especially I stick with “Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.”
Nevertheless...
I think we need to start invoking the old gods to intervene. Without it we are doomed!
I mean specifically we need to have Obama and the EPA establish an ethnic section within the EPA( so politically correct!), who go around collecting virgins to sacrifice to volcanos in Hawaii.No hear me out, its not so outlandish! All of Obama's African dictator friends, including Robert Mugabe, would support this, especially if some of the virgins were Caucasian! Rev. Jeremiah Wright would approve immediately!
Of course we know that there are almost no Dem virgins, so that leaves the conservative Republicans as a source. We could sell Obama on it as a way to reduce the numbers of conservatives as well!
And on top of that, we could reverese Global Warming almost immediately! What to you think Al Gorp was doing when he boarded Molly Hegerty in Oregon? He was checking her virginity!They are already planning IT!(This will be Al's defence to Molly's law suit.)
THE VIRGIN SACRIFICE MOVEMENT (VSM). JOIN TODAY!!!!! ( Sponsored by Presidential Executive Order to the E.P.A.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.