Posted on 03/29/2014 10:29:25 PM PDT by Kartographer
But a 7.5 quake on the Puente Hills fault could cause the fault to slip for an entire 20 seconds — and the shaking could last far longer. The Puente Hills fault could be especially hazardous over a larger area because of its shape. Other local faults, like the Newport-Inglewood and Hollywood, are a collection of vertical cracks, with the most intense shaking occurring near where the fault reaches the surface. The Puente Hills is a horizontal fault, with intense shaking likely to be felt over a much larger area, roughly 25 by 15 miles. According to estimates by the USGS and Southern California Earthquake Center, a massive quake on the Puente Hills fault could kill from 3,000 to 18,000 people and cause up to $250 billion in damage. Under this worst-case scenario, people in as many as three-quarters of a million households would be left homeless. One reason for the dire forecast is that both downtown L.A. and Hollywood are packed with old, vulnerable buildings, including those made of concrete, Jones said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/external/reports/05HQGR0076.pdf
‘Who knows’ why the USGS doesn’t map it on their earthquake map...this thread was the first I’d heard of the fault.
I find it highly likely that the unregulated fracking activity is likely to blame for the quake swarm, albeit with an ironic benefit to Orange County in that it’s releasing stress, but horribly ironic, hypocritical & irresponsible of a State saturated with both known & unknown ‘sleeping’ faults. Since a fault DOES exist under this fracking site, it’ll be just dumb luck if their activities didn’t cause a much, much larger one.
Fracking causes earthquakes?
Yellowstone area acting up a bit this morning.
4 earthquakes in map area
4.8 37km ENE of West Yellowstone, Montana 2014-03-30 08:34:39 UTC-04:00 6.8 km
3.1 14km NNW of Challis, Idaho 2014-03-30 07:27:36 UTC-04:00 5.0 km
3.0 35km ENE of West Yellowstone, Montana 2014-03-30 06:36:25 UTC-04:00 1.6 km
2.8 36km ENE of West Yellowstone, Montana 2014-03-30 02:23:48 UTC-04:00 1
It’s likely hydraulic fracturing in the wrong place at the wrong time could trigger a major earthquake much like shooting an avalanche control cannon improperly could trigger a major avalanche. However hydraulic fracturing is also likely an economical solution to reducing one huge earthquake into many harmless small ones. The 7 earthquakes to hit La Habra recently didn’t cause much damage or any deaths. The earthquakes are going to happen anyway. It’s better to try to manage them than let them build up to catastrophic energy levels. Hydraulic fracturing can trigger earthquakes but is not a cause of them. Banning all hydraulic fracturing will not reduce the damage potential from natural earthquakes.
4.8.....
We lived on the Puente Hills fault for many years, then moved to Memphis, TN sitting on the New Madrad fault...........
I like that nice orange tip.
You’re misreading me.
I’ve already made the ironic observation that the activity reduced the stresses on the fault without tragedy.
Not a word I’ve typed is anti-fracking; far from it.
However, in the most environmentally-regulated state in the nation they’ve permitted unregulated fracking for hydrocarbon resources.
Even a green Californian can’t ignore that irony...
...made worse by the fact that in their bureaucratic largesse they permitted this site to be RIGHT OVER THE fault. You can draw a straight line between the 2 biggest quakes and practically intersect the fracking site.
There is NO EVIDENCE that this hydrocarbon fracking site was placed to reduce fault stresses. That stated, the converse will likely be the result after some bright Californian journalist reads FR and gets their editor to publish a story embarrassing to the State of California.
Irony, sarcasm, facetiousness...that’s the tone of my revelations here. Make no mistake.
Forgot your sarc tag, you did. lol
No. Serious question.
Fault hopping, eh?
Well, if we didn’t have tectonics we wouldn’t be sitting here reading about it.
Ok, thanks for connecting the dots! Sometimes discoveries are made by ineptness, so we can certainly expect some new discoveries out of CA.
You are right there are plenty of scare mongers, yet I can’t help but think of all those FReeper ‘experts’ that declared Huricane Sandy was 100% a product of ‘scared mongers’.
The snowflake pictograph gives it a nice touch, probably meant for government jackboots that don't read much before they shoot.
They must be pushing quake insurance again..
I got interested in geology while still in grade school. Way back then they were talking about injecting water into faults to relieve stresses. I recall they did that in CA with some success in the 80s. I also recall that much of this 'discovery process' was the result of research into geothermal technologies, resulting in study of the then-unknown consequent effects of deep drilling & fluid injection: seismic activity. I'm struggling to find any archive that old. However, I did find this LONG list of references dating back pre-70s for some of them:
http://www.nyx.net/~dcypser/induceq/iis.html
The anti-fracking camp uses anything & everything to tarnish the practice. I don't agree with the petrochemical industry's practice of injecting production-waste chemicals into old wells OR the same's use for fracking, but the knee-jerk reaction of the industry to earthquake activity in areas coincidentally siting fracking is 'we don't cause earthquakes'; the opponents naturally use any data opposing fracking to their benefit.
In the 80s, scientists began to make connections between water levels in deep water wells & seismic activity:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1980/1141/report.pdf
From the government side, a report on earthquake hazard reduction:
http://www.nehrp.gov/pdf/2013ACEHRReportFeb27.pdf
Not trying to shore up the 'other side', but this from 1980 is titled, 'Measuring the Risks of Waste Disposal by Deep-Well Injection':
http://vwrrc.vt.edu/pdfs/bulletins/1980/bulletin122.pdf
And here's the EPA's (barf, but good analysis) take on it, citing events back to the '60s:
http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class6/upload/uicundergroundinjectionandseismicactivitydec2010.pdf
A report from 1993 with LOTS of citations/references
http://geosurvey.state.co.us/hazards/Earthquakes/Documents/ERC/FLUID%20INJECTION%20CAUSE%20EARTHQUAKES%20ASSESSMENT-DAVIS%20AND%20FROHLICH%201993.pdf
And I found a study on deep well injection & earthquake activity dating to the early 60s
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/colorado/history.php
This purely-defensive piece of garbage illustrates part of my point
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/next_up_on_the_fracking_fear-mongering_list_earthquakes.html
Here's a USGS Powerpoint on the topic
http://www.usgs.gov/solutions/ppt/2012june08_leith.pptx
Again, clarity: I am NOT anti-fracking. Much like on nuclear, I'm anti-stupid. I've already made my facetious clarifications. If you agree with the hypocrisy I've outlined here, you'll also be ROFLYAO over the State of CA siting a fracking site over a major fault. I am.
In closing, from the 1993 study:
In evaluating the seismic hazard from fluid injection projects, we encourage people to assess the magnitudes of potential earthquakes. Many injection situations are similar to those where small earthquakes may be induced, but the likely fault areas and fault slips would pose little or no hazard for most engineering applications. However, where there are concerns about the possible damage from induced seismic activity, it would be prudent to take appropriate precautions (Nicholson and Wesson, 1990; Cypser and Davis, 1993). These precautions might include evaluating the site for the potential of induced seismic hazard, and monitoring the injection site for seismic activity.Maybe Department of Oil, Gas & Geothermal's (DOGGR) Geologist should have done his/her homework...
An engineer who works with fracking in Texas says they check where fault lines are before they drill and won’t drill close to a fault line. His company is a large one in Texas drilling in multiple locations in Texas.
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