Earthquakes

Braxton County | Chesapeake Energy | Earthquakes | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | West Virginia

New Case of Earthquakes Related to an Injection Well in WV?
August 27, 2013August 27, 2013

One of the gross inaccuracies MDN has tried to address over the past several years is the claim that “fracking causes earthquakes.” It does not. At least not measurable earthquakes people can feel at the surface. No less a source than the National Academies of Science released a study last year to “finally” put that particular myth to rest (see NRC Study: Fracking Does Not Cause Earthquakes). Unfortunately the earthquake myth is just too good a PR opportunity to pass up, so anti-drillers haul it back out about every three months for a new round of exposure.

The earthquake issue is confusing for many people because there is a loose connection between earthquakes and fracking: injection wells. Although most fracking wastewater is now recycled to be used again for more drilling, some of it is disposed of via deep injection wells. If an injection well happens to be located near a geologic fault, the pressure from the injected fluid has the potential to trigger an earthquake. It happened in Youngstown, OH in late 2011/early 2012 (see ODNR Finds Youngstown Injection Well Caused Earthquakes). According to a recent report from WV Public Broadcasting, it may now be happening again near a Chesapeake-owned injection well in Braxton County, WV…
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Earthquakes | Industrywide Issues

Science Magazine Article on Fracking & Earthquakes: Nothing New
July 12, 2013July 15, 2013

Major…media…is…breathless…… Fracking causes earthquakes! A single article by a single author published in Science magazine means it must be so, right? Wrong. Here’s what you need to know about the new article called, “Injection-Induced Earthquakes,” released yesterday on the Science website but containing a publish date of today: The article (from what we can tell by the abstract and media synopses of it), tells us nothing we don’t already know.

What do we know? Injecting any kind of fluid under pressure–fracking fluid, nasty waste chemicals, or even water itself–will cause an earthquake if enough fluid is injected near a seismic fault. We already know that. What you won’t see in major media accounts of the story is any kind of context, which MDN provides for you below…
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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Stanford Prof Says Fracking & Earthquakes are a Concern
June 19, 2013June 19, 2013

Every three or four months, as regular as clockwork, the mainstream media resurrects the claim that “fracking causes earthquakes.” We’ve written about it a number of times (see MDN’s Industrywide Issues>Earthquakes category). Any kind of underground activity causes small (micro) “earthquakes.” But the kind you feel on top of the ground–the kind of earthquake that makes the surface move? No, fracking does not do that. At least almost never–we are aware of a single instance in England where a well was fracked directly on a fault line that caused an earthquake (see Report from England Links Fracking to Earthquakes).

At yesterday’s “Shale Gas Promises and Challenges” event in Cleveland, a pro-drilling professor from Stanford University, Mark Zoback, playing to an anti-drilling crowd, said fracking’s link to earthquakes is a concern…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY’s Anti-Drillers Attempt Smear of Geologists Consulting for DEC
February 7, 2013February 7, 2013

How does one convey the lunacy of the anti-drilling position in New York State? Latest example: The NY Dept. of Environment Conservation (DEC) has hired two geologists as consultants to evaluate earthquake risks associated with fracking (yes we know, there is no earthquake risk, but humor us for a bit). In a coordinated attack, anti-drillers say that because the two geologists have also done consulting assignments for nasty, evil drilling companies, they’re tainted. Damaged goods. Shills and tools of the drilling industry. Not to be trusted. Even though they’ve also done consulting work for environmentalist (anti-drilling) organizations. Doesn’t matter.

Such is how far anti-drillers have sunk in their campaign of smears and lies to try and prevent the miracle of hydraulic fracturing—which is already being done in NY in vertical conventional wells and has been for decades—from happening in the state for horizontal shale wells too.

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Earthquakes | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Questerre Energy | Utica Shale

Canadian Questerre Energy Says Fracking Causes Tiny Earthquakes
August 30, 2012August 30, 2012

It seems that every month or two someone resurrects a very dead issue: fracking causes earthquakes. MDN has covered the issue extensively over time (just do a quick MDN search on the word earthquake). In a nutshell, the only known instance when the process of fracking a shale gas well has caused an earthquake detectable on the surface was in England, and it was a unique situation where the drilling was shallow and near a geologic fault (see this MDN story).

Canadian energy company Questerre Energy Corporation is working to develop Utica Shale acreage in the St. Lawrence Lowlands area of Quebec province. Must be they’re getting push-back from environmentalists and investors because they’ve just issued what they call a “fact sheet” on the topic of fracking and earthquakes. According to Questerre, fracking does cause earthquakes—but they’re teeny tiny and not detectable on the surface.

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Bloomberg (Once Again) Says Fracking Causes Earthquakes
August 7, 2012August 7, 2012

Bloomberg Businessweek is highlighting the publication of a new paper that looks at earthquake activity around injection wells in Texas and concludes that fracking causes earthquakes. The article starts this way:

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Wastewater

Bloomberg Targets Fracking for Recycling Water, Earthquakes
July 23, 2012July 23, 2012

Another masterful hit job against fracking by Bloomberg, this one appearing in Bloomberg Businessweek. The latest propaganda piece masquerading as an article, titled “Fracking Foes Build Momentum for Recycling,” goes after fracking based on the amount of water used, especially in light of the “the worst U.S. drought in a half century.”

The aim of the article is to plant the seed that fracking uses too much water, although the article’s authors admit (slipping in this fact along the way) that water use for hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania is less than one-tenth of one percent (0.01) of all water used every day in that state. In other words, the amount of water used by fracking in PA is a rounding error. Makes no difference—the authors plow on trying to sully the reputation of fracking.

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

NRC Study: Fracking Does Not Cause Earthquakes
June 18, 2012June 18, 2012

Does hydraulic fracturing—the process of forcing water, sand and a few chemicals down the bore hole and into shale formations—cause earthquakes? The National Research Council (NRC), part of the National Academies of Science, says the answer to that would be “no, fracking does not cause earthquakes.” That’s according to a new study just released by the NRC titled “Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies” (a link to the full study is embedded below).

The study found that out of a sample size of 35,000 oil and gas wells that have been horizontally fracked, earthquakes have been detected—get ready—in one instance. One. Which is statistically dead zero.

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Report from England Links Fracking to Earthquakes
April 25, 2012April 25, 2012

$fracking and earthquakes$ Does fracking cause earthquakes? A newly released report from England reportedly confirms a link between hydraulic fracturing of a shale gas well and earthquake activity. And this is not an injection well, but a standard, hydraulically fractured natural gas well. A copy of the report is embedded below. MDN will walk you through the background, what really happened—and why it happened. This is “the rest of the story” you won’t get anywhere else.

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Earthquakes | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Wastewater

ODNR Finds Youngstown Injection Well Caused Earthquakes
March 12, 2012March 12, 2012

A preliminary report released by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) on Friday concludes that a dozen earthquakes in northeastern Ohio were “almost certainly” induced by injection of gas-drilling wastewater (a full copy of the report is embedded below). The evidence is overwhelming: The earthquakes did not begin until three months after the injection well went online; the quakes were all clustered around the well bore; and a new fault has been discovered in the bedrock where the wastewater was being injected. Taken together, the ODNR is as sure as it can get that the injection well was causing the earthquakes.

Therefore, the ODNR has issued new regulations for injection wells, what state officials are calling among the toughest rules in the nation. From the ODNR press release:

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Trumbull County | Wastewater

Youngstown Earthquake Update
January 3, 2012January 3, 2012

John Armbruster, a seismologist from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, NY is one of the researchers investigating a string of 11 earthquakes near Youngstown, OH, the most recent of which occurred on New Year’s Eve in the afternoon. Armbruster says a local injection well, which injects wastewater from shale gas drilling under high pressure deep into the ground, is “almost certainly” the cause of the earthquakes.

As MDN pointed out yesterday, injection wells are not fracked gas wells (see this MDN story). But some politicians keep trying to tie the two together. A spokesman for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Rob Nichols, does a great job in pointing out the difference:

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Mahoning County | Ohio | Trumbull County | Wastewater

Youngstown Earthquake and Fracking: Is There a Connection?
January 2, 2012January 2, 2012

A 4.0 earthquake in the Youngstown, OH area on Saturday afternoon is thought to be connected to a local injection well. MDN has chronicled previous episodes of earthquakes thought to be connected with injection wells in Arkansas and Texas. Saturday’s earthquake was the 11th in the Youngstown area in recent months, and by far the strongest. The theory is that fluid, which is pumped nearly two miles underground under very high pressure, had migrated to a nearby fault and is causing the fault to shift.

Until it can be determined what, exactly, is happening, all further injection of fluid into the well has been stopped. In fact, fluid injection had stopped a day earlier, on Friday, before Saturday’s quake. But pressure in the well would remain high for a period of time, likely leading to the 4.0 quake.

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Earthquakes | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues

Does Fracking Cause Earthquakes? Formula Calcs Quake Size
December 13, 2011December 13, 2011

Does fracking cause earthquakes? MDN has covered various stories in the past on this topic. It seems likely that injection wells (not hydraulic fracturing, but the wastewater from fracking being injected deeply in disposal wells) in some locations have been tied to earthquakes in some areas. Notably, when injection wells in Arkansas stopped pumping pressurized liquids into the wells, earthquakes in the area all but stopped (see this MDN story). It certainly seems there is a cause and effect situation.

But what about fracking a single well? Is there a danger that fracking can cause earthquakes? Arthur McGarr, a geologist at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California has worked out a formula for predicting how large an earthquake can result from pumping/injecting fluids underground, including fracking fluids. He recently presented his formula at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, CA. McGarr subsequently spoke to the journal Nature about his formula:

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Earthquakes | Industrywide Issues

Anti-Drillers Try to Tie VA Earthquake to Marcellus Drilling
September 6, 2011September 6, 2011

It didn’t take long for those who oppose Marcellus Shale gas drilling to try and link the recent earthquake centered near Mineral, VA on August 23 to hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling in the Marcellus. Blogs and internet forums said the 5.8 magnitude quake was a result of Marcellus drilling activity, but scientists have flatly stated there is no connection to be made: Marcellus drilling activity is not the cause of the quake. But is there ever a connection between shale gas drilling and earthquakes? The surprising answer is, maybe. But likely not what you think it is.

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