For now, most European countries remain opposed to hydraulic fracturing, the process of using sand, water and chemicals pumped at high pressure to fracture dense rock formations to release oil and natural gas.
OK let me get this straight...you break up huge chunks of the rock this continent is sitting on to extract the oil, and you think that is acceptable...
So what happens then? Instead of sitting on top of a solid foundation the continent is sitting on top of one that is broken up into a thousand pieces. All those now smaller chunks of rock can now move around when the tectonic plates squeeze harder, which they will forever do, and in a fairly short time we'll see new earthquakes and volcanoes where none existed before...
This is ludicrous. Has anyone, anywhere considered the geologic implications of all of this? The oil we've been pumping out of the ground for many years IS THERE FOR A REASON. Removing it has to have serious long range repercussions. You're removing large reservoirs of liquid from the ground, allowing everything on top of it to move. No, encouraging it to move. Now they want to break up chunks of the rock too. Just a couple of years ago they started doing this, and less than 6 months ago we saw a pretty scary earthquake in Virginia. Geologically speaking, Virginia is not far from Texas, that earthquake could very well have been caused by major changes in the overall pressure level of the part of tectonic plate nearby, allowing an existing fault to move around. Or causing it to move.
This is not just imagination. When army engineers decided to dump toxic waste a few years ago by pumping it into the ground at high pressure it caused local and immediate earthquakes. They stopped and so did the quakes. I'll have to get out my book and look up when and where, but it was not all that long ago, within the past 30 years I think, and in the Colorado area if I remember correctly. Maybe Arizona...but I think it was Colorado.
I've been wondering for years, long before reading about this, what effect oil drilling would have. Now this process comes along and it's really scary. Breaking up large chunks of the rock this continent sits on sounds like a very bad idea. Especially if you do it by creating increased areas of high pressure. That pressure has effects in every direction, and allows the rock you're breaking up to be squeezed back together later, and no oil left for lubrication...
Any changes like this in one area can and do affect the adjoining tectonic faults. Smash up the rock in one area and allow it to squeeze together, the portion of the plate next to it can move more easily. Right now this might not be a major issue, the north American continent is basically one huge plate. But what happens when the fault lines have something like this to allow sudden changes?
I know someone will mention California, but that's a different situation. The Pacific plate is spinning slowly counter-clockwise. Curves in the San Andreas fault are causing it to catch at some points, like a ratchet, it's not a straight line. When one of those curved areas lets go, you have an earthquake. 5000 years from now a good sized chunk of California will be part of Alaska. L A is part of it.
In the central part of the country the picture is much different. The whole thing is reacting to what's going on out west, and there's another plate to the east that is pushing another direction. Fault lines are weak spots in those plates. Some have seen no movement for thousands or even millions of years. Crushing the rock underneath us will wake them up. Any changes in one place will allow a dormant fault next to it to move around. I'm wondering if this is already showing itself by way of the earthquake in Virginia?
What happens if you pour concrete around an explosive charge, then set off that charge. If the whole thing is large enough, it might not do more than vibrate the upper surface. Maybe a few cracks. But give it a few years. Those cracks widen, more appear, heavy traffic above causes the now powdered inner structure to weaken even more, and eventually it gives way. This is what is happening to the huge chunk of rock we're living on. They're breaking up large pockets of rock that are already under stress from the natural movement of the huge plates the surface of the planet is made of. Sure, those plates are 40 miles thick, one drilling spot is just a small area. But what kind of new fractures is this causing? What effects is it having on existing ones?
This process is a very bad idea. Even worse than pumping oil out to begin with. when you pump out the oil you remove that lubrication and create a hole the existing rock can now try to fill. Bad idea...break up that rock and cause more fractures? Even worse.
Man has found another way to quicken his destruction of the planet. This will cause geological changes man will regret for many generations...if we survive it at all...
I'm a member of the BOMB SQUAD.
If you see me running, better catch up!
http://billy-griffis-jr.artistwebsites.com/
...Not that I use it for that , of course...
And the draw back is it only draws babes that have a death wish and love speed..
