How do you explain the dramatic rise of earthquake incidents in OK since about 2010 compared to the years prior to fracking?
How do you explain the dramatic rise of earthquake incidents in OK since about 2010 compared to the years prior to fracking?
Sherrick won't be convinced. It's very clear where his biases lie on this issue.
The USGS maintains an entire webpage dedicated to this topic. I'm not sure I would call them liberal or MSM.
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-does-injection-fluid-depth-cause-earthquakes
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-does-injection-fluid-depth-cause-earthquakes
I felt that one all the way up here by Quapaw.
Why do folks seem to think hydraulic frac’ing of wells is a new thing? Wells have been frac’ed in Oklahoma since the 50’s. The big change is horizontal drilling. These wells require much bigger fracs but still the same process. Water injection has been around since the industry began here as well. Does it play a role in earthquakes along fault lines? Perhaps.
But think about it it, when you are producing a well, you are removing fluids (oil, gas, water) from a producing zone and typically injecting the produced water back down into the ground in a non - producing zone (or perhaps the same zone). Simple material balance says there are changes taking place underground. Removing weight, pressure, and volume from the producing zone leaves open pore space in the rocks and reduces overburden pressure on everything below. Injecting it elsewhere, adds pressure and weight and causes expansion of pore space. This injected volume will take the “path of least resistance” and travel down any natural fractures in the rock that are there. Will/can movement take place causing small earthquakes? Likely.
Not thinking Oklahoma is going to quit producing wells anytime soon so I’m guessing these small earthquakes that are possibly caused by the industry will continue indefinitely.
Same as the earthquakes that occur “naturally” and have nothing to do w/ oil and gas.
But think about it it, when you are producing a well, you are removing fluids (oil, gas, water) from a producing zone and typically injecting the produced water back down into the ground in a non - producing zone (or perhaps the same zone). Simple material balance says there are changes taking place underground. Removing weight, pressure, and volume from the producing zone leaves open pore space in the rocks and reduces overburden pressure on everything below. Injecting it elsewhere, adds pressure and weight and causes expansion of pore space. This injected volume will take the “path of least resistance” and travel down any natural fractures in the rock that are there. Will/can movement take place causing small earthquakes? Likely.
Not thinking Oklahoma is going to quit producing wells anytime soon so I’m guessing these small earthquakes that are possibly caused by the industry will continue indefinitely.
Same as the earthquakes that occur “naturally” and have nothing to do w/ oil and gas.
How do explain the fact that the graph is missing nearly a century of data? Perhaps the missing data shows a different story?
Heard and felt it in NW OKC.
Because fracking is a relatively recent phenomenon, so there’s no data back beyond the past 50 years or so. But if you look at oil production in OK, you can see a roughly similar situation in this graph:
Basically, the number of earthquakes about magnitude of 3.5 to 4 doubled in the years starting around 2009, with year-to-year frequencies going up as well (red bars). The black stars indicate quakes with a magnitude of 4 or greater; there are three such from the late 1800s to about 1960, and a cluster starting around 2009. The graph doesn’t show the 1997 earthquake in Pontotoc County with a magnitude of 4.5, though. It also doesn’t show well that since 2011, there have been at least 16 quakes with a magnitude of 4.5 or greater, compared to four quakes from about 1880 to 1997.
Thank you for the explanation.
I'm not against fracking but I'm kind of bothered about earthquakes that possibly don't need to be happening (if there were adequate options on the table), since these earthquakes if big enough could mess up my home.
I'm also not going to take on a NIMBY stance and say that fracking should happen elsewhere. It seems a good chunk of OK's economy is based on supporting fracking ops and that's fine.
Someone can be 100% behind something, and at the same time advocate that maybe there's a better way to do parts of it that are less destructive overall.
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