General Chat (Non-Music-Related)

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/06/0 ... akes-Texas

he connection between wastewater injection wells and an alarming increase in the frequency of earthquakes is getting a lot more scrutiny these days.

First was Oklahoma, which has suddenly become the earthquake capital of the United States. The number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0 or higher more than quadrupled between 2013 and 2014 in the state. The culprit? Scientists are becoming more confident that the injection of wastewater into disposal wells causes fault lines to “slip,” contributing to the likelihood of an earthquake.

The issue has become highly contentious in Oklahoma. But now the controversy has spread to Texas, where a subsidiary of ExxonMobil is under the microscope. After a series of earthquakes struck near Dallas, Texas regulators are demanding answers. The regulators will hold a set of hearings beginning on June 10 in which they will look into a set of earthquakes that have been linked to disposal wells operated by XTO Energy, a shale gas company purchased by ExxonMobil back in 2010.

Related: Fracking Has Made Oklahoma the Earthquake Capital of the U.S.

Research from Southern Methodist University, based in Dallas, may have found a link between nearby injection wells and the earthquakes. What is worrying state regulators is the fact that the fault line that was triggered had been dormant for a long time, but sprung to life after the disturbance from the disposal wells.

In response to all the seismic activity, regulators sent requests to four energy companies, asking them to shut down their wells and look into the matter. Those companies were EOG Resources, Bosque Disposal Systems LLC, Metro Saltwater Disposal Inc., and Pinnergy Ltd.

While the industry had urged against a rush to judgement in terms of making the link between disposal wells and earthquakes, arguing that more research was needed, the data has become much harder to ignore. The frequency of earthquakes has spiked and seismologists are now confident in the link. Even the CEO of ConocoPhillips Ryan Lance has come out and admitted that there is a connection. “We’ve followed all the data and the evidence and it does appear that in some areas water disposal is creating seismic events,” he said in May. “We’re trying to understand how widespread it is.”

The big question is whether or not regulators are going to crackdown on the industry moving forward. That remains to be seen.

- See more at: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/06/0 ... KJIaA.dpuf

I've posted on this before, it was known long ago.

In the 60's the Army Corps of Engineers decided to pump waste fluids down a deep well in Colorado. A month later earthquakes started. After a long period of very rare and mostly minor quakes, Colorado suddenly had hundreds in a few years.

This is especially interesting because at this time the theory of plate tectonics was a very new science and not widely accepted, and this run of earthquakes was not well understood but did help lend credibility to the idea that the plates the various continents sit on did move around. These days plate tectonics is accepted fact, then it was well debated theory, but well substantiated theory. A new world of geology was opening up before the scientists eyes, and this helped get it a lot more study.

Fracking does essentially the same thing. Any fluid introduced into the deep beds of rock acts as a lubricant, under the high pressure and temperatures involved at the kind of depths we're dealing with. And just the proper name should be cause for alarm...fractured shale drilling...Fractured???? OK so you break up the rock this continent sits on and then pump in water under high pressure, which you already know acts as a lubricant. Recipe for disaster.

Sure it means a lot more oil for the already rich oil barons, but at the expense of earthquakes and much financial damage to everyone else. Anyone trying to claim "fracking" does not cause earthquakes is only doing so to keep his paycheck he's getting from the oil companies. I'm not sure if it's worth it, and the ones being noticed around Dallas are too close for comfort, that's only 4 hours away. According to the documentation I've seen concerning those in Colorado in the 60's some of the stronger ones can be felt further away than that..

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/161/3848/1301.short

https://oldcoloradonews.wordpress.com/2 ... the-1960s/

http://www.dmns.org/main/minisites/colo ... uakes.html

Here is the text copied from a link included in that last link, with one of the best short descriptions I've seen:

In March 1962, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, a chemical weapons plant northeast of Denver, had begun injecting contaminated wastewater down a 12,045-foot well. The earthquakes started the next month.

When the injections stopped temporarily in 1963, the number of earthquakes dropped. When the injections resumed in 1964, the number of earthquakes increased. The wastewater injections stopped permanently in early 1966, but the earthquakes didn’t stop until late 1968.

How did the wastewater injections cause earthquakes? Scientists think that the wastewater acted as a lubricant that reduced friction between underground rocks, allowing them move more easily. When movement occurred on a sufficiently large scale, an earthquake resulted.

My Geology book had a good article about it with a more lengthy explanation but it said basically the same thing. At high pressure and temps far underground any liquid, even water, acts as a lubricant. Earthquakes result.

So yes, fracking is causing earthquakes in Texas. And everywhere else it's being done.

A couple of good articles about it...

http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/23/oklahoma ... -fracking/

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/earthquake/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/a ... cal-survey