Fracking Industry Linked to Earthquakes
U.S – Fracking may cause earthquakes. That’s what researchers at Southern Methodist University are saying.
Cleburne, Texas is a community consisting of more than 29,000 people as of 2012. Before 2008 earthquakes were unheard of in the area — California’s problem — but in 2009 and 2010 the suburb of Fort Worth recorded more than 50.
Authors of the SMU report wrote, “Because there were no known previous earthquakes, and the located events were close to the two injection wells and near the injection depth, the possibility exists that earthquakes may be related to fluid injection.”
Fracking began in Johnson County in 2005 but the earthquakes didn’t start for another four years, until 2009. That, however, does not rule out that the fracking process may play a significant role in causing earthquakes in locations that otherwise have had no history or record of earthquakes.
Barnett Shale is an enormous geological formation stretching more than 20 North Texas counties, consisting of more than 2,400 injection wells. Perhaps the buildup over time culminated in the earthquakes? That is not a difficult scenario to believe by any means. Anyone who’s ever used a garden hose to dig a hole as a child knows well the effects of pumping fluids into rock and soil. Things move.
Cliff Frohlich, a research scientist at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin, said, “The model I use is called the air hockey table model. You have an air hockey table, suppose you tilt it, if there’s no air on, the puck will just sit there. Gravity wants it to move but it doesn’t because there[‘s] friction…”
If the air is turned on, however, the puck slips easily over the surface.
He continued, “Faults are the same. If you pump water in a fault, the fault can slip, causing an earthquake.”
Linking the fracking process to earthquakes is not new or even uncommon, as the U.S. Geological Survey can tell you. Fracking was linked to 109 earthquakes around Youngstown, Ohio, in 2011 — another area that had previously never experienced or recorded an earthquake. Fracking began in that region in December 2010. After a 3.9 earthquake rumbled the city Dec. 31, 2011, the local well was shut down.
Just last month, North Texas experienced over 20 more earthquakes, to boot! Another earthquake struck in Parker County only Tuesday morning, registering 2.7 on the Richter scale only a single mile to the east of Reno. Oklahoma has recently been added to the list, as well. The link between fracking and earthquakes is likely to continue for some time as researches, politicians, and the industry all wrestle over the realities (both known and unknown) surrounding fracking.
Earth and science professor Brian Stump said of the SMU studies, “This provides a foundation for understanding earthquakes in the Central and Eastern U.S. in a broader context. These are very small earthquakes — barely large enough to be felt. The only concern is will they become larger, and that’s a question I can’t answer.”
But have we, as citizens of this country, come to such apathy and arrogance that we will not balk at private industry conducting itself so destructively for the sake of profit. Will we allow really allow them to go so far as creating earthquakes in our communities, no matter how small? Are we so institutionalized to capitalism and our own jingoism? Let us hope the weak do inherit the earth, eh?
Mayor of Azle, Texas, Alan Brundrett said, “If it is determined that quakes are caused by the disposal wells, then the disposal wells need to stop. It’s that simple.”
How many examples do we need? How many studies on how many locations before it is clearly spelled out for us, though battered and buried beneath the industry’s counter campaign to obfuscate the field of information all must sift through to understand the risks and (yes) benefits of fracking.
Everything has pros and cons, but are earthquakes a con we’re willing to take? What do we benefit by earthquakes in our neighborhoods?
And now, too, one has to wonder… what about the sinkholes?
The Report Looks At The Link Between Drilling Wastewater And North Texas Earthquakes
