Posted on 03/22/2014 8:43:05 PM PDT by Star Traveler
Edited on 03/23/2014 5:41:00 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
2013 felt the most earthquakes in state history, experts say
Last year had the highest number of earthquakes in state history, scientists said.
The state shook more times than ever with 222 earthquakes in 2013 that registered as a 2.5-magnitude quake or more, a record for Oklahoma, said Austin Holland, who is a seismologist who moved to the state to study quakes at the Oklahoma Geological Survey in 2009.
So far in 2014, there have been 63 earthquakes that were 2.5-magnitude or greater already, Holland said.
“The more earthquakes you are going to have the more damaging earthquakes you are going to have,” Holland said.
On Dec. 7, Marty Doepke, general manager of Pops, a State Highway 66 restaurant near Arcadia Lake, heard a boom and felt the ground rumble with a 4.5-magnitude quake that occurred east of the lake four miles northwest of Jones. The 5,000-square-foot restaurant and soda pop store was built to withstand earthquakes, he said. All of the glass bottles on display shelves are glued down, so there was no damage.
“We’ve certainly felt them a couple of times,’ Doepke said. As long as the quakes don’t get any bigger, the concrete and steel building should be fine, he said.
In November, a swarm of quakes was felt in the Arcadia Lake area in Edmond. More quakes are being reported in more populated areas, he said.
“We’ve had just a remarkable number of earthquakes,” Holland said.
He said a new seismologist has been hired at the Oklahoma Geological Survey, Amber Lee Darold, helping to find a reason for the earthquakes.
The cause of the increased seismic activity is under investigation.
“We’re continuing to try to understand this and to keep up with the number of earthquakes,” Holland said.
When Holland moved to Oklahoma from Arizona there were 38 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater felt in 2009.
Then 104 earthquakes were felt in 2010 and 97 quakes in 2011, Holland said, before the number dropped to 64 in 2012.
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-is-on-shaky-ground-earthquake-experts-say/article/3934396
Actually, USGS just came out with a conclusion ...
U.S. Geological Survey confirms: Human activity caused 5.7 quake in Oklahoma
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) issued a press release yesterday indicating that the magnitude 5.7 earthquake that struck Prague, Oklahoma in 2011 was unintentionally human-induced.
The USGS claims that the magnitude 5.0 earthquake triggered by waste-water injection the previous day “trigger[ed] a cascade of earthquakes, including a larger one, [which] has important implications for reducing the seismic risk from waste-water injection.”
Injection wells are considered by some to be the most environmentally sound method of disposing of waste-water — which is a byproduct of both hydrofracking and conventional oil production — because they use the earth itself to both filter and contain the pollution.
The decade-long explosion of energy-producing facilities in the central United States has, according to a recent article in the journal Geology, led to an 11-fold increase in the number of earthquakes occurring in areas that are typically tectonically calm, including Arkansas, Texas, Ohio, and Colorado in the past four years alone.
The 5.7 magnitude quake in Prague followed an injection of waste-water approximately 650 feet away from the Wilzetta fault zone, a complex fault system about 124 miles in length. All three earthquakes exhibited a slip-strike motion, and did so at three different locations, indicating that three separate areas of the fault zone were activated.
Researchers believe that the increased pressure required to inject the water into areas previously occupied by oil caused the fault to “jump.” Heather Savage, a geophysicist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said that “when you overpressure the fault, you reduce the stress that’s pinning the fault into place and that’s when earthquakes happen.”
Geoffrey Abers, also a seismologist at Lamont-Doherty, agreed, saying that “[t]here’s something important about getting unexpectedly large earthquakes out of small systems that we have discovered here. The risk of humans inducing large earthquakes from even small injection activities is probably higher.”
Despite this risk, authorities in Oklahoma continue to allow waste-water injection near the Wilzetta fault.
I felt this one, when it happened! Everyone in the house wondered how long the shaking was going to go on as things were shaking and swaying in the house.
The 5.7 magnitude quake in Prague followed an injection of waste-water approximately 650 feet away from the Wilzetta fault zone, a complex fault system about 124 miles in length. All three earthquakes exhibited a slip-strike motion, and did so at three different locations, indicating that three separate areas of the fault zone were activated.
Researchers believe that the increased pressure required to inject the water into areas previously occupied by oil caused the fault to “jump.” Heather Savage, a geophysicist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said that “when you overpressure the fault, you reduce the stress that’s pinning the fault into place and that’s when earthquakes happen.”
Geoffrey Abers, also a seismologist at Lamont-Doherty, agreed, saying that “[t]here’s something important about getting unexpectedly large earthquakes out of small systems that we have discovered here. The risk of humans inducing large earthquakes from even small injection activities is probably higher.”
Despite this risk, authorities in Oklahoma continue to allow waste-water injection near the Wilzetta fault.
Naw, he’s on first.
Scientists are studying = Moonbats are hoping
It’s past that point ... I felt this one and it was dramatic ...
U.S. Geological Survey confirms: Human activity caused 5.7 quake in Oklahoma
The 5.7 magnitude quake in Prague followed an injection of waste-water approximately 650 feet away from the Wilzetta fault zone, a complex fault system about 124 miles in length. All three earthquakes exhibited a slip-strike motion, and did so at three different locations, indicating that three separate areas of the fault zone were activated.
Researchers believe that the increased pressure required to inject the water into areas previously occupied by oil caused the fault to “jump.” Heather Savage, a geophysicist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said that “when you overpressure the fault, you reduce the stress that’s pinning the fault into place and that’s when earthquakes happen.”
Geoffrey Abers, also a seismologist at Lamont-Doherty, agreed, saying that “[t]here’s something important about getting unexpectedly large earthquakes out of small systems that we have discovered here. The risk of humans inducing large earthquakes from even small injection activities is probably higher.”
Despite this risk, authorities in Oklahoma continue to allow waste-water injection near the Wilzetta fault.
You certainly can draw a NE line through those spots. And then you notice the lake and the river on either side.
Take a look at the time lapse graphic at the link in Post #60.
I am not easily impressed by free visualization tools, but WOW!!!!
Quick, easy, 3D visualization.....THANKS!!!
I’m wondering if magma is moving upwards toward the surface!
Fatty Arbuckle
5. Beginning with the “wildcatters” in the early 20th century, oil-extraction was relieving pressure that would otherwise have naturally been building in this tectonic ridge area. Aggressive investment in oil-alternatives put a damper on demand, and less extraction occurs, allowing pressure to build again. This increase in the natural plate-pressures is then occasionally released as tremors and earth-quakes. Ergo, lack of drilling and oil extraction, as a direct result of Federal Government policies, is causing earthquakes.
(/sarcasm)
It makes as much sense as the loony explanations from the left!
Gotta be due to fracking. /s
> the largest being a magnitude 4.0.
Rattles the dishes.
http://www.sdgs.usd.edu/publications/maps/earthquakes/rscale.htm
Hmmm, I was sorta kidding, with a minor concern for such things, but now there may be more to it than I previously thought. It has to depend on the size/volume of the well. Sure, if the well is a hemispherical or spherical, collapse could trigger tremors. But they’d more likely be cylindrical columns, I believe, of very small diameter, which should not be much concern. But I am only speculating. Thx!
ping
Have they caused any structural damage?
I wonder if he did it or was framed?
They have all been low magnitude and only a few reports were aired of hairline cracks in ceilings, etc. Soil has a high clay content, so during droughts such damage is common with slab foundations.
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