Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumWastewater Injection Spurred Biggest Earthquake Yet, Says Study
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/3072[font size=4]2011 Oklahoma Temblor Came Amid Increased Manmade Seismicity[/font]
[font size=3]2013-03-26
A new study in the journal Geology is the latest to tie a string of unusual earthquakes, in this case, in central Oklahoma, to the injection of wastewater deep underground. Researchers now say that the magnitude 5.7 earthquake near Prague, Okla., on Nov. 6, 2011, may also be the largest ever linked to wastewater injection. Felt as far away as Milwaukee, more than 800 miles away, the quakethe biggest ever recorded in Oklahoma--destroyed 14 homes, buckled a federal highway and left two people injured. Small earthquakes continue to be recorded in the area.
The recent boom in U.S. energy production has produced massive amounts of wastewater. The water is used both in hydrofracking, which cracks open rocks to release natural gas, and in coaxing petroleum out of conventional oil wells. In both cases, the brine and chemical-laced water has to be disposed of, often by injecting it back underground elsewhere, where it has the potential to trigger earthquakes. The water linked to the Prague quakes was a byproduct of oil extraction at one set of oil wells, and was pumped into another set of depleted oil wells targeted for waste storage.
Scientists have linked a rising number of quakes in normally calm parts of Arkansas, Texas, Ohio and Colorado to below-ground injection. In the last four years, the number of quakes in the middle of the United States jumped 11-fold from the three decades prior, the authors of the Geology study estimate. Last year, a group at the U.S. Geological Survey also attributed a remarkable rise in small- to mid-size quakes in the region to humans. The risk is serious enough that the National Academy of Sciences, in a report last year called for further research to understand, limit and respond to induced seismic events. Despite these studies, wastewater injection continues near the Oklahoma earthquakes.
The magnitude 5.7 quake near Prague was preceded by a 5.0 shock and followed by thousands of aftershocks. What made the swarm unusual is that wastewater had been pumped into abandoned oil wells nearby for 17 years without incident. In the study, researchers hypothesize that as wastewater replenished compartments once filled with oil, the pressure to keep the fluid going down had to be ratcheted up. As pressure built up, a known faultknown to geologists as the Wilzetta fault--jumped. When you overpressure the fault, you reduce the stress thats pinning the fault into place and thats when earthquakes happen, said study coauthor Heather Savage, a geophysicist at Columbia Universitys Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
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Baitball Blogger
(46,703 posts)secondvariety
(1,245 posts)Some are over 3000 feet deep.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/uic/
Baitball Blogger
(46,703 posts)This is just crazy!
valerief
(53,235 posts)krakfiend
(202 posts)Get ready for the wastewater lobbists (jeb bush) and deniers (george p. Bush) in ..3..2..1
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)and every living thing on it?
Let's get it over with, already.
I hate it when they drag out global extinction.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... life resembles science fiction more and more every single day. The Corporatistas are blowing up the world, above and below ground. Spoiling our air and our water. Not to mention acquiring and destroying the commons which are near and dear to each and every one of us. And the Scientists trail along after them, reporting on the destruction that's left behind. And then the taxpayer trails along, last in the line, to pick up the ticket on all the clean-up.
The only thing is that it's not science fiction. It's not a nightmare. It's reality.
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)at about this same time. The last one was big enough for them to shut down that injection well located at the epicenter. We never had earthquakes here. They determined these quakes were a result of the well, and there have been no more since that injection well was shut down.
And still, Ohio is allowing injection wells. Sigh.
They_Live
(3,232 posts)Every aspect is horrible and is going to bite us (and future generations) on the ass. Who has the conscience to stop it?
caseymoz
(5,763 posts)If we become self-sufficient in energy but have to import water, then we took a bad deal. The earthquakes are just a minor effect compared to that.
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)except for the ones they've bought up.
Then they'll have a profitable monopoly selling us the water we need in order to survive.
truebrit71
(20,805 posts)caseymoz
(5,763 posts)Under the excuse of providing us with energy, they're cornering water. I think they're doing it with all public resources. They have the wealth, now they're buying up the assets.
Not only that, I think they know Global Warming and environmental crisis is coming. I mean, there might be a ideologues among them who won't believe, but the richest class aren't unaware of things, and they have experts personally informing them.
I get suspicious that they're setting it things, thinking they could survive the coming environmental crash if they leave the rest of us to die.
Yes, that sounds paranoid, but let's just presume they know we're heading for catastrophe, and-- as Ayn Rand egoists-- they consider themselves to be above the rest of us. If you thought like that, what would you be doing?