Arkansas tremors caused by fracking. Fracking to blame? Texas rocked by 16 earthquakes in last 3 weeks. Northern Texas towns are experiencing an intense string of earthquakes – the last of which was one of the most powerful in 5 years. As unusual tremors have been going on for over 3 weeks now, many suspect fracking might be to blame. On Thursday, the region experienced two tremors, with one of them registering 3.6 magnitude, 55 km west of the town of Azle at 07:58:36 GMT, as recorded by the US Geological Service, and the other 2.8 at 08:41:07 GMT, with the epicenter not far from the first one.
USGS records show that the 3.6 tremor was one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the region in 5 years. “It sounded like a sonic boom, and then the house started shaking,” Keith Krayer, a local resident who felt the effects of the quake, told RT. Krayer said he had no doubt the quake was sparked by fracking. Residents like Krayer are having their nerves put to the test as the region chalked up its 16th this month. In the last four days, there have been six recorded quakes. November 6 (2) Arkansas tremors caused by fracking.
Fracking and tremors. Fracking is known to cause very slight tremors when the fluid is injected into shale rock under high pressure. Drilling companies often send sensitive instruments called geophones into the drill holes to analyze the tiny tremors because they indicate whether the rock is fracturing as expected.[1] Quakes reported in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in 2011 and 2012 were associated with wastewater injection wells (not fracking per se). The water first used in fracturing rock is retrieved and pumped into the injection wells. At more than 9,000 feet deep, the water is under high pressure that can build up over months or years; this pressure can cause earthquakes.[2] According to the U.S. Department of Interior, there has been a six-fold increase in quakes in the central U.S. from 2000-2011, and those quakes have been strongly correlated to wastewater injection from fracking.[3] The 2011 earthquakes near UK's Blackpool were later linked to the hydraulic fracturing process itself.
Regulations Ohio. Tremors due to fracking rare, U.S. report finds. The controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas does not pose a high risk for triggering earthquakes large enough to feel, but other types of energy-related drilling can make the ground noticeably shake, a major U.S. government science report concludes. Even those man-made tremors large enough to be an issue are very rare, says a special report by the National Research Council. In more than 90 years of monitoring, human activity has been shown to trigger only 154 quakes, most of them moderate or small, and only 60 of them in the United States. That's compared to a global average of about 14,450 earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or greater every year, said the report, released Friday. Most of those are caused by gas and oil drilling the conventional way, damming rivers, deep injections of wastewater and purposeful flooding. Potential for 'significant seismic events' The report makes sense as far as it goes, said U.S.
Low risk for quakes from hydraulic fracturing. L’Oklahoma reconnait le rôle des gaz de schistes dans les séismes. Des derricks aux USA © David McNew/Getty Images/AFP Le gouvernement de l’Oklahoma a mis en ligne le site Internet qui montre le lien entre tremblements de terre et forages, en grande partie liés aux gaz de schistes. Une première dans cet Etat où se trouvent 3000 puits d’injection d’eaux usées issus des forages gaziers et pétroliers. Pendant longtemps, les autorités avaient éviter de trancher sur les liens entre l’activité sismique et l’essor des puits de stockage des eaux usées des forage, relève le New York Times qui voit dans cette décision un changement d’approche.
Depuis le milieu des années 2000, l’activité sismique a augmenté dans l’Etat. Auparavant, il n’y avait que 2 tremblements de terre par an d’une magnitude supérieure à 3 degrés sur l‘échelle de Richter. Il y en a eu 585 en 2014. Cette augmentation du nombre de séismes coïncide avec l’essor des forages de gaz, notamment de gaz de schiste. Gaz de schiste, 20.000 propriétaires fonciers ont interdits l’accès à leurs terrains.. Gaz de schiste: pas d’avantages pour le Québec, juge le BAPE. Malgré ce que répète le lobby du gaz de schiste, rien ne prouve que le développement de cette industrie serait avantageux pour le Québec.
L’acceptabilité sociale n’est pas non plus au rendez-vous, conclut le rapport du Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) dans son rapport rendu public lundi matin. « La commission a constaté qu’il n’était pas démontré que l’exploration et l’exploitation du gaz de schiste dans les basses-terres du Saint-Laurent, avec la technique de fracturation hydraulique, serait avantageuse pour le Québec en raison de l’ampleur des coûts et des externalités potentiels par rapport aux redevances qui seraient perçues par le Québec », souligne ainsi le BAPE. Le BAPE estime qu’il existe des « lacunes » dans les connaissances des fractures naturelles du sous-sol, ce qui empêche de déterminer s’il serait possible que les nappes phréatiques soient contaminées par l’industrie du gaz de schiste.
L’acceptabilité sociale, un prérequis Permis actifs. Fracking provides few benefits to Quebec, environmental review says. The Bureau des audiences publique sur l’environnement, BAPE, determined there is scant evidence to support the oil and gas lobby’s claim that hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as “fracking,” would be advantageous for Quebec. The controversial process entails injecting water, sand and chemicals underground at extremely high pressure to break up shale rock formations and free natural gas. The fracking projects in Quebec are concentrated in the St. Lawrence Lowlands between Montreal and Quebec City, home to 2.1 million people and the province’s best arable land. The report found that fracking could have “major impacts” on nearby communities, from polluting the air to increasing traffic and noise.
Even with “rigorous attenuation measures,” fracking would still cause a “range of annoyances” for residents hundreds of metres from a work site, the BAPE said. It said the work could also generate enough noise to disturb people living up to four kilometres away. gvendeville@montrealgazette.com. Des manifestants prévoient bloquer la route 11 pendant quatre jours. Des milliers de manifestants contre les gaz de schiste.
Plusieurs milliers de personnes ont manifesté samedi dans la Drôme et le Jura contre l’exploration et l’exploitation du gaz de schiste, à l’occasion de la journée internationale contre le «fracking». Cette mobilisation a également rassemblé quelques centaines d’opposants à Lille et Toulouse. «Le gaz de schiste, on n’en veut pas, ni ici, ni ailleurs, ni aujourd’hui, ni demain» ou encore «Nos pâturages valent mieux que vos forages», scandaient à Montélimar les manifestants – 1.800 selon la police et 3.500 selon les organisateurs. De tous âges, originaires du sud de la France (Var, Hérault, Drôme et Ardèche), ils répondaient à l’appel de plusieurs collectifs «Stop aux gaz et huile de schiste».
Quelques-uns étaient venus du village de Zurawlow (sud-est de la Pologne) et de Balcombe (sud de l’Angleterre), deux sites concernés par l’exploitation controversée du gaz de schiste. «On n’est pas rassuré par la décision du Conseil constitutionnel.