I don’t really understand what “fracking” is, but I know it was enough of an issue that it prompted my nephew — born & raised in West Central PA — to declare a geology major in college.
I hope that’s a good thing. He got a free ride, brain that he is.
Means "fracturing". Accomplished by lowering explosive charges into the drill hole and setting them off, so as to fracture the adjoining rock formation, allowing any hydrocarbons trapped therein to flow more freely -- into the drill hole. Includes injection of granular substances like sand into the fractures -- so as to keep them open.
The process has been common in Southwestern oil fields since the fifties. The only difference today is that it's being employed in concert with horizontal drilling -- so that the fracturing can occur along, say, a 3,000 ft horizontal stretch of productive formation rather than a 50 ft vertical depth.
Here is a very well written article on the subject, a great read that gets into the technology and how the industry is getting along w/ State regulators in PA....
www.nationalreview.com/articles/293086/truth-about-fracking-kevin-d-williamson#