Earthquakes in Central U.S. ‘Almost Certainly’ Tied To Fracking

NASDAQ ^ | 4/13/12 | Amir Khan

[Erik Latranyi]

but in Russia they managed to show a one-for-one association between fracking and earthquakes in places where there were normally NO earthquakes.

The Russians used a nuke to "fracture" that well!

[Lysander]

Oh we can’t be proactive and alter the earth. these folks think reducing risk is messing up the environment.

[Publius6961]

Earthquakes in Central U.S. ‘Almost Certainly’ Tied To Fracking,

Great.
The mother of all Eastern earthquakes, New Madrid, (1812) was caused by fracking ( 2000s).

Got it.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

Does anyone have a map showing the location of the quake's epicenters and the gas fields that utilize "fracking". That would be an interesting source of fact...

Regards,
GtG

[dragnet2]

I would advise everyone in the Central U.S. to get out as fast as possible.

[Smokin' Joe]

Those who thrive in a world of shortages do indeed have an agenda, especially if the thing in short supply is a way to remain ‘relevant’ and get funding. Of course, those who toady up the the Usurper and promote his agenda just might get a Dacha somewhere...

[Smokin' Joe]

A study was done in the Williston Basin, using three parallel horizontal wells and a host of vertical ones. The vertical wells and the outside two horizontal wells were loaded with instrumentation strings to determine the effects of the frac job done in the middle horizontal well.

The data is out there as to just what effects are felt and where from the frac, horizontally and vertically those effects occur.

They could produce that data, and frankly, all else is speculation or BS.

[SunkenCiv]

Not a chance. Thanks BigEdLB.

The real cause of diminishing resources?

Liberals and points further left.

The solution?

Getting rid of liberals and points further left.

[Smokin' Joe]

The US tried that, too, in Colorado, many moons ago.

[detective]

I am not familiar with the study you mentioned. It sounds like they are measuring the effect of fracking on the wells.

An earthquake is something far more large. It is the result of the release of stored energy when the earth's plates move relative to one another usually along a fault plane.

There is no possible way fracking could cause the earth's plates to move. The government employees quoted in the article said as much when they said they could not think of a way that fracking could cause an actual earthquake.

Studying the data you mentioned could help to understand the effects of fracking. I don't think that is what the government employees are doing. They are just speculating without doing a study. It is all political.

[Smokin' Joe]

Seven oil companies, the DOE, and another agency iirc, were involved in the study I mentioned. The data were not readily available because of the shared expenses.

However, the Government has the data.

Fracking isn't causing any earthquakes. There have been some low-magnitude seismic events related to injection and disposal wells. That isn't a secret, and it isn't fracking, either.

Given the present anti-oil agenda of the current administration, I would not be surprised to find that there will be a continued and concerted effort to confuse the public so there will be an outcry for shutting fracking down for their safety.

Keep in mind, even a moratorium to 'study the problem' will collapse state economies where current drilling and production programs utilize fracking to make the wells economical, from the Marcellus and Utica Shales, to the Bakken/Three Forks in North Dakota and Montana, to the Barnett and Eagle Ford plays in Texas--all depend on fracking to open up the rock and increase production.

While the estimates of pipeline jobs were around 100,000, the number of jobs which would be affected, direct, support, and related to oil and gas revenue probably number in the millions.