Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Fracking In Ohio Triggered 400 Tiny Earthquakes Over 3-Month Period, Scientists Say

A Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site. CREDIT: AP Photo/Ralph Wilson The controversial oil and gas drilling technique of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, triggered 400 small earthquakes in Ohio over a three-month period in 2013, according to new peer-reviewed research published Tuesday. Conducted by seismologists Paul Friberg, Ilya Dricker, and Glenda Besana-Ostman, the research reveals a previously undiscovered fault line approximately two miles below three horizontal gas wells near the town of Uhrichsville, Ohio. In one instance, the researchers say they detected 190 tiny earthquakes below one of those wells during a 39-hour period starting just after that well was fracked. The earthquakes were too small to be felt in all cases, but Friberg said they were stronger than he initially expected. “Hydraulic fracturing has the potential to trigger earthquakes, and in this case, small ones that could not be felt,” he said in a statement, “however the earthquakes were three orders of magnitude larger than normally expected.” The technique of fracking works, essentially, by “fracturing” underground shale rock. Companies drill a well underground, then inject a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into that well to crack the rock and let gas flow out more easily. According to Friberg, the process of cracking the rocks causes “micro-earthquakes,” the magnitudes of which actually come up as negative numbers on the Richter scale — usually in the range of -3 to -1. Only ten of the earthquakes measured by Friberg and his team were above negative magnitudes, all occurring between October 2 and October 19, 2013, and ranging from a magnitude of 1.7 to 2.2.



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