Does Geothermal Power Cause Earthquakes?

Popular Science ^ | 3/23/2010 | Elizabeth Svoboda

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

, Markus Häring caused some 30 earthquakes -- the largest registering 3.4 on the Richter scale -- in Basel, Switzerland. Häring is not a supervillain. He's a geologist, and he had nothing but good intentions when he injected high-pressure water into rocks three miles below the surface, attempting to generate electricity through a process called enhanced geothermal. But he produced earthquakes instead, and when seismic analysis confirmed that the quakes were centered near the drilling site, city officials charged him with $9 million worth of damage to buildings.

The geothermal drill in Switzerland was shut down after it caused 100 earthquakes in a week. Stefan Wermuth/ReutersHäring was acquitted last December -- it was ruled that he had not intentionally created the tremors -- but his project was nixed for good late last year following a scientific review that calculated a 15 percent chance that further drilling could spur a major earthquake causing more than $500 million in damage. The debacle is bringing enhanced-geothermal projects here in the U.S. under new scrutiny.

Conventional geothermal plants run on steam from within the earth. But for places without steam reservoirs, scientists developed enhanced geothermal. The technique involves drilling a well deep into hot rock and injecting high-pressure water into the hole. As the water forces its way into the Earth's crust, it carves new fractures into the rock and absorbs heat. Then engineers simply pump the heated water back to the surface and use the resulting steam to turn electricity-generating turbines. The U.S. is banking on enhanced geothermal as a source of inexpensive, green energy -- we have plenty of hot rocks, particularly in Western states.

[The Antiyuppie]

There’s no question that it does - the question is will it cause a BIG one?

[Doomonyou]

BFL

[HerrBlucher]

As the water forces its way into the Earth's crust, it carves new fractures into the rock and absorbs heat.

Gee, I can't imagine what is causing those earthquakes...hmmmm.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Many of the Geothermal hot spots are in areas that are seismically active

[A CA Guy]

How’s his black hole generator doing?

[Kellis91789]

That’s bad.

The Yellowstone caldera will eventually blow erupt again and blanket most of the lower 48 States with volcanic ash, wiping out virtually all crops and other plant and animal life and making it uninhabitable for decades.

I was kind of hoping enhanced geothermal could be used to siphon off that energy and delay the eruption indefinitely. Guess that’s not an option.

[uglybiker]

Everybody knows that earthquakes are cause by two things:

1. Republicans driving S.U.V.'s

2. The Zionist Bush/Cheney military-industrial machine dropping bombs on poor innocent jihadists in the Middle East.

[SuperLuminal]

3. Oil and coal industry and farting livestock creating global warming which in turn causes massive snow & ice deposits which apply extreme pressure on the earth’s crust.

[wally_bert]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfJINBvvHLE

[SunkenCiv]

...he had nothing but good intentions when he injected high-pressure water into rocks three miles below the surface, attempting to generate electricity through a process called enhanced geothermal. But he produced earthquakes instead, and when seismic analysis confirmed that the quakes were centered near the drilling site, city officials charged him with $9 million worth of damage to buildings. The geothermal drill in Switzerland was shut down after it caused 100 earthquakes in a week. Stefan Wermuth/ReutersHäring was acquitted last December -- it was ruled that he had not intentionally created the tremors...

And he didn't create earthquakes -- he merely triggered them earlier than they would have been. Thanks sonofstrangelove.

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[LiberConservative]

Butbutbutbutbut I thought the science was settled and Bush causes all earthquakes. Danny Glover said so. Just sayin’.

[LadyDoc]

heh. Lots of earthquakes recently here in the PHilippines...wonder if they are partly because of our geothermal electric plants...