RealClearScience Nails Shabby Maddow Spin on Fracking and Earthquakes

NewsBusters.org ^ | August 13, 2012 | Jack Coleman

[Kaslin]

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow engaging in "unscientific, selective reporting of the facts" -- no!

This is what RealClearScience's Alex Berezow is alleging in response to a Maddow segment last week linking a series of minor earthquakes in Texas to fracking in the Lone Star State. (video after page break)

Maddow's claim that earthquakes 'never' occur in east Texas undercut - by sources she cites

Over a span of 40 days, between June and July, north Texas was rocked by an astonishing eleven separate earthquakes," Maddow said while showing a map of fracking sites in the vicinity of quake epicenters.

Berezow describes what Maddow chose to leave out --

But a paper published in PNAS, also from the University of Texas, provided more information. Did fracking cause earthquakes? Yes, probably small ones. Maddow enthusiastically reported this. But, many injection wells (where waste water was injected) did not have any earthquakes at all. The author hypothesizes that earthquakes can only occur if there is a suitable fault nearby. Did Maddow report that? No, of course not.

It's also worth noting that geothermal energy -- a green source endorsed by many environmentalists -- also causes earthquakes. One such project in Basel, Switzerland was shut down because of them. Did Maddow mention that? No.

Berezow concludes that Maddow's analysis is "nothing more than a biased, one-sided presentation of a serious science policy issue." This is unfortunate, he writes, because she "likes to present herself as scientifically-minded. But presenting only the facts that support your case, instead of all the facts, isn't what a scientist does -- it's what a partisan does."

Berezow included a clip of entire Maddow segment in his post. In the clip I've embedded here, Maddow's claims are undercut by the sources she cites --

A 3.7-magnitude earthquake in east Texas, sort of unheard of. The Timpson City secretary told a local news station that she initially thought a nearby train had derailed. She said it 'shook the whole city hall' for about 15 to 20 seconds. Even the experts couldn't seem to figure it out. Gary Patterson of the US Geological Survey in Memphis says survey geologists are baffled by the event. He says, It's not where we normally see earthquakes in Texas.'

This was kind of a mystery, this thing in Timpson, Texas. No injuries were reported. There was some minor damage to local buildings, but a 3.7-magnitude earthquake came and went in a place where there never are earthquakes, and nobody seemed to know why.

[StAnDeliver]

Madcow is in way over her head. In just a few short years, MSNBC has gone from Abrams in charge, spearpoint Dohlbermann; to no one in charge, with this crazy lesbian ironically proving The Peter Principle...

[Kaslin]

But the expert Maddow cited didn't say the area around Timpson City "never" gets earthquakes. He said it's an area that "normally" isn't hit by earthquakes. Not an earth-shattering lie on Maddow's part but a chasm you would not build a foundation on.

It got better with the next source cited by Maddow --

MADDOW: Then a week later it happened again.

KLTV ANCHOR (May 17) -- For the second time in just a week and just the fourth time since 1981, an earthquake has struck in east Texas.

Where this "never" happens, at least by Maddow's reckoning, except that it does every eight years on average in recent decades. Put another way, if Obama wins re-election, we will have seen as many two-term presidencies since 1981 as earthquakes in east Texas.

Thirty-one years, not incidentally, barely qualifies as the blink of an eye in geologic time.

[Wildbill22]

Maddow’s smile had a sea of anger just under the surface. She is clearly disturbed.

[job]

I really, really doubt this is true. The USGS and Texas Geological Survey should bear out the truth. WE have earthquakes in OK all the time, they are too small to detect without geophysical data. I want to see one peer reviewed paper from University of Texas, or Oklahoma, or CO School of Mines, or Texas A&M, or Stanford, or Tulsa University, that supports the notion that fracking can cause or initiate an earthquake.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Kaslin.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Kaslin.

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[KoRn]

When one considers how many THOUSANDS of miles the Earth is deep, the simple suggestion that ‘Fracking’ would have anything to do with Earthquakes is just stupid fantasy talk.

I doubt humans could cause a substantial Earthquake. even if we SERIOUSLY tried.....

[pepsionice]

Fracking causing earthquakes....is the same logic of fifty million Chinese soldiers jumping up and down in unision to trigger a earthquake in their own presence. If you believe the Chinese story....then you just to believe the fracking stuff.

[haroldeveryman]

There was one in Wash DC several months ago. It shook things at least as far as NYC.

[thulldud]

I doubt humans could cause a substantial Earthquake. even if we SERIOUSLY tried.....

Hey, Lex Luthor did it in the (first) Superman movie!

[okie01]

I want to see one peer reviewed paper from University of Texas, or Oklahoma, or CO School of Mines, or Texas A&M, or Stanford, or Tulsa University, that supports the notion that fracking can cause or initiate an earthquake.

Well, the oil industry has been fracking in Texas and Oklahoma for about sixty years now.

You'd think that would be enough time to establish a correlation. So, there probably isn't one...

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia, 08/23/11. Magnitude 5.9, if I remember correctly