Fracking Fears Grow as Oklahoma Hit by More Earthquakes Than California. Squinting into a laptop perched on the back of his pickup, Austin Holland searches for a signal from a coffee-can-sized sensor buried under the grassy prairie. Holland, Oklahoma’s seismology chief, is determined to find the cause of an unprecedented earthquake epidemic in the state. And he suspects pumping wastewater from oil and gas drilling back into the Earth has a lot to do with it. “If my research takes me to the point where we determine the safest thing to do is to shut down injection -- and consequently production -- in large portions of the state, then that’s what we have to do,” Holland said.
“That’s for the politicians and the regulators to work out.” So far this year, Oklahoma has had more than twice the number of earthquakes as California, making it the most seismically active state in the continental U.S. The rise in earthquakes isn’t just happening in Oklahoma, challenging scientists and regulators across the country. ‘Strong Correlation’ Waiting on Science Magnitude 3.0. Air Pollution Spikes In Homes Near Fracking Wells. Slow-Motion Earthquakes Caused by Natural Fracking?
Natural fracking may be to blame for weird "slow" earthquakes that last for hours to days, a new study suggests. Oil and gas fracking involves cracking open rocks using water laced with sand and chemicals, pumped underground at high pressure. Now, seismic evidence from the Cascadia subduction zone leads researchers to suggest a similar process takes place deep on the zone's massive fault, generating slow earthquakes. The findings were published today (June 18) in the journal Nature.
Researchers only recently discovered slow earthquakes, and scientists are still figuring out how they work. These slow-motion quakes have been detected at subduction zones offshore of Japan, New Zealand, the United States and Canada. A subduction zone is a bang-up between two of Earth's tectonic plates, where a denser oceanic plate dives under a lighter continental plate. Each subduction zone comes with its own puzzling pattern of repeating slow earthquakes. The fluids come from the sinking oceanic plate. Is fracking causing earthquakes? States with drilling are investigating | PennLive.com.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio is leading a group of drilling states working with seismology experts from energy companies, government agencies and universities across the U.S. on how best to detect and regulate human-induced earthquakes. The initiative follows Ohio's discovery in April of a probable link between the drilling practice called hydraulic fracturing and five small tremors in eastern Ohio, a first in the Northeast. In 2012, Gov. John Kasich halted disposal of fracking wastewater surrounding a well site in the same region after a series of earthquakes later tied to a deep-injection well. The company that ran the well has disputed the link.
Ohio Oil & Gas Chief Rick Simmers said in an Associated Press interview that state regulators are seeking up-to-date information so they can develop appropriate detection procedures and regulatory practices. "I think we're being proactive in some ways," he said. "We're not waiting until something bad happens. "You can't regulate away an earthquake.
Will Fracking Cause Our Next Nuclear Disaster? (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)The idea of storing radioactive nuclear waste inside a hollowed-out salt cavern might look good on paper. The concept is to carve out the insides of the caverns, deep underground, then carefully move in the waste. Over time, the logic goes, the salt will move in and insulate the containers for thousands of generations.
"The whole game is to engineer something that can contain those contaminants on the order of tens of thousands of years," Tim Judson, the executive director of the Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS), told Truthout. NIRS is intended to be a national information and networking center for citizens and environmental activists concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation and sustainable energy issues, according to Judson.
Since shipments began in 1999, more than 80,000 cubic meters and 11,000 shipments of waste have been transferred to WIPP. "These are the major concerns," Hancock warned. "A Massive External Release" BP and Shell 'must' stop using shareholders' money to fund lobby group. By Rob Davies PUBLISHED: 21:00 GMT, 2 June 2014 | UPDATED: 07:35 GMT, 3 June 2014 BP and Shell have been urged to stop using shareholders’ money to fund a US lobby group that promotes looser gun laws and the teaching of climate change denial in schools. The oil firms are members of the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which greases the wheels of communication between politicians and corporate interests. Dozens of companies, including McDonald’s and Wal-Mart, left ALEC after the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012, over its advocacy for the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law on self-defence shootings.
Under pressure: The oil firms are members of the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council British drugs firm GlaxoSmithKline and consumer goods giant Unilever also ended their association with ALEC. But BP and Shell remain member-donors, prompting criticism from investment institutions who say use of shareholders’ money to fund ALEC is opaque and improper. Rt. Former-Mobil-Oil-exec-urges-brakes-on-gas-fracking-5422292. Albany As a retired high-ranking oil company executive, one might expect Louis Allstadt to sing the praises of opening up New York to natural gas hydraulic fracturing.
But Allstadt, who worked 31 years for Mobil Oil, stood among elected officials from several upstate communities Tuesday to urge the state not to allow hydrofracking, and instead encourage development of more renewable energy. "Making fracking safe is simply not possible, not with the current technology, or with the inadequate regulations being proposed," said Allstadt, retired executive vice president of Mobil. He spoke during a news conference called by Elected Officials to Protect New York, a group which represents more than 800 officials from all 62 counties statewide that have adopted anti-fracking resolutions.
Allstadt said he began studying fracking a few years ago after friends asked him if he thought it would be safe to have gas wells drilled near the lake. "And this requires thousands of trucks coming and going. Fracking expert Mark Zoback: We need good science, good engineering, good regulations and good enforcement. "Fracking" — now there's a word that just begs for a bumper sticker. Short for "hydraulic fracturing" — the process of breaking open rock with high-pressure liquids to get at otherwise untappable oil and natural gas — fracking conjures up a welcome energy boom for some, ecological disaster for others. Mark Zoback — Stanford geophysicist since 1984, member of the National Academy of Engineering's Deepwater Horizon investigation committee, personal "decarbonizer," fracking expert — sees the problems and the potential for California.
Zoback's bumper sticker might read something like this: "Fracking — Do it, but do it right. " Fracking California's Monterey Shale, in the San Joaquin Valley, is looking like a second Gold Rush. It's early days. Should regulations be federal or state? Both state and federal regulations come to bear. Do we know enough about fracking to draw up good regulations in the first place? Absolutely. That's optimistic. Is any place doing it right? Oil and gas drilling could dim the night sky in Chaco Canyon. A thousand years ago, Chaco Canyon was a thriving cultural center for the ancestral Pueblo peoples of the Southwest. Multi-storied Great Houses containing hundreds of rooms lined the canyon and exotic birds and colorful pottery filled ancient marketplaces. Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon.
Photo: Ti Hayes Today, the ruins of Chaco are a wonder to behold, many of which are protected in the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The remaining stone buildings at Chaco are so significant that the park is designated a World Heritage Site, one of only twenty in the United States. It is also one America’s preeminent stargazing locations.
Designating dark skies Last year, the Chaco Culture National Historical Park became the newest park to receive the International Dark Sky designation. Unfortunately for stargazers, there is a growing—and glowing—threat near Chaco: oil and gas drilling close to the park. In 2009, the oil and gas industry nominated several parcels within a few miles of Chaco Canyon. Cal Tech Professor: Fracking Causes Earthquakes. The following is an opinion piece by John MacMurray, a retired La Habra teacher and former Democratic candidate for State Assembly. He blogs at LAProgressive.com where this column was first posted. He is an occasional contributor to CityWatch. I’ll be right up front about it: earthquakes scare me.
Small ones are WHEW! Moments, like when you realize the guy that just ran the red light missed you. Bigger ones, though; they’re a whole different story. In Southern California, you live with earthquakes. As U.S. Most of you already know that earthquakes are usually measured on the Richter Scale; and that it’s a logarithmic scale; each whole number represents 10 times the shaking amplitude of the one before it, but releases 32 times more energy. And since you already knew all that, no need to go into the details here. Couple of things to know: “fracking” is a nickname for the process of hydraulic fracturing; this process has been in use since the late 1940s. According to Dr. Comments comments. Fracking-Linked Earthquakes May Strike Far from Wells. ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Fracking may cause earthquakes much farther from the sites of its wastewater wells than previously thought, researchers said here Friday (May 2) at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America.
In central Oklahoma, a cluster of four high-volume wastewater injection wells triggered quakes up to 30 miles (about 50 kilometers) away, said lead study author Katie Keranen, a geophysicist at Cornell University in New York. The earthquakes have since spread farther outward, as fluids migrate farther from the massive injection wells, she said. "These are some of the biggest wells in the state," Keranen said. "The pressure is high enough from the injected fluids to trigger earthquakes. " Scientists here noted the vast majority of injection wells haven't triggered any quakes, and the link between earthquakes and fracking or wastewater injection is not conclusive. However, there are now more earthquakes in the United States than before the fracking boom began. Fracking trespass law changes opposed by 74% of British public, poll finds | Environment.
The government faces widespread opposition to plans to change trespass laws to allow shale gas companies to drill under homes without the owner's permission, a poll has revealed. The YouGov survey of 1,898 people found that 74% opposed the controversial move, which ministers are thought to be considering as part of efforts to drive a "shale gas revolution" that could see fracking across swathes of the UK. More than 45,000 people around the country have joined legal moves to block energy companies from fracking under their properties, but a change to the trespass laws could allow companies to explore for shale gas without needing their permission. The survey found that 73% of Conservative voters and 70% of Liberal Democrat supporters did not agree with changing the law to make it easier to drill under people's homes.
The poll carried out for Greenpeace also revealed 80% of Labour voters and 77% of those planning to vote Ukip opposed the move. Frackers are flooding the atmosphere with climate-warming methane. The free pass that frackers and natural-gas handlers have gotten on their climate-changing methane emissions is really starting to stink to high hell. We told you in February about the results of a meta-analysis of 20 years worth of scientific studies, which concluded that the EPA underestimates the natural-gas industry’s climate impacts by 25 to 75 percent, due to methane leakage from its gas drilling operations and pipelines.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. Two scientific studies published in the past month reveal that the problem is far worse than that. For a paper published last week in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, researchers flew aircraft over a heavily fracked region in northeastern Colorado and took air samples. Not only that, but cancer-causing benzene emissions were found to be seven times higher than the EPA’s estimates, while emissions of some smog-forming chemicals were found to be double the EPA’s estimates. Earthquake Experts: Yes, Fracking Earthquakes Are A Thing. When the Seismological Society of America says that fracking earthquakes are a real thing, then it’s a good bet that they are.
The annual SSA meeting last Thursday featured a daylong session on “Induced Seismicity” that featured new research indicating that oil and gas fracking, and the practice of disposing wastewater underground, can alter the state of an existing fault. The result is to spread the range of seismic hazard farther out from the faultline than previously thought. While we’re waiting for Fox News to find a seismic denialist to let the public know that this is all just a bunch of hooey, let’s take a closer look at that research.
Fracking Earthquakes: Who’s Minding The Store? It’s worth noting, first off, that given the thousands of fracking and disposal wells already in operation, and the thousands more that are drilled every year, the number of wells directly linked to seismic activity so far is miniscule. The Latest Fracking Earthquake Research Earthquakes In Your Backyard. Questions on the Future of Fracking. Questions on the Future of Fracking Posted on Apr 25, 2014 By Kieran Cooke, Climate News Network This piece first appeared at Climate News Network. LONDON—There’s no doubt that fracking – the complex process through which oil and gas is extracted from deposits of shale rock deep underground – has revolutionised the US energy sector.
Fracking, says the oil and gas industry, will bring an end to the country’s dependence on fuel imports: self-sufficiency is the stated goal. Governments in other countries, including the UK, are jealously watching developments in the US: many are seeking to promote their own shale energy boom. Though the oil and gas produced from fracking are fossil fuels, some green groups see the industry as potentially helpful in fighting climate change: the idea is that these fuels – particularly supposedly cleaner fracked gas – will act as transition energies till renewables like solar and wind power are properly developed. Depleting aquifers Bursting point? Export potential.