What's shaking out your way Dan?

[Willie_B]

Just wondering if you felt the quake this morning.

[94touring]

I was in Memphis but I heard it could be felt.  To be honest we get them daily but usually you never feel them. I've felt two. Just a light shaking!

Let me add the problem is fracking.  I'm all in favor of getting oil and natural gas but fracking is causing serious problems with the stability of the earth.

[Merlin]

We have been fracking since the 1920. Oklahoma is on a natural fault line. Fracturing of the rock for an earthquake is a vertical movement, where fracking is a horizontal split along the rocks sediment line.

If fracking was the culprit, it wouldn't  be a recent thing. It would have been happening since the dawn of our state.

[94touring]

http://ecowatch.com/2015/11/16/oklahoma-most-earthquakes-fracking/

[Merlin]

I read your article and noted that no citations to any other sources. No journals, legitimate or manufactured, or scientific research. When a sight relies on advertisements to pay the rent, we have a problem with their credibility.

Only this was to be found in an article reference in another article stating that "scientists linked fracking to earthquakes"

"The USGS says bluntly, "Earthquake activity has sharply increased since 2009 in the central and eastern United States. The increase has been linked to industrial operations that dispose of wastewater by injecting it into deep wells."

wastewater injection is not the same as fracking. Far from it. EPA mandates wastewater injection because when it gets to the surface, its a hazardous waste and either needs to be sent to a hazard dump or put back from where it came.


They use the word "linked to" quite a bit. This is correlation and not causation.
http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/36/examples-for-teaching-correlation-does-not-mean-causation


Now for something that is more educational
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4aOMKhkhSc

[MiniDave]

That was so good I'm copying it over to the fracking video thread!   ;D

[velopackrat]

Merlin,

You obviously know something about gas drilling.  I know nothing other than what I read. 
But I do have a layman's question;  If no rock was fracked but water was injected anyway, wastewater or otherwise, would there be no earthquakes?

Velopackrat

[MPlayle]

Unless they are injecting the waste water into a known empty cavity, the process of injecting it will create fractures in the rock.

[Merlin]

They pull the crude out of the ground. Some of that is water. That water is re-injected back into the hole in which it came. Sometimes they pump it into an abandoned well, or they will pump it on the backside of the product. Traditionally crude was found in geological formations like sandstone that allows crude to permeate and flow easier. Therefore letting the water be pumped back in its place or push the product to the well.

Fracking is a process that splits the rock and allows for higher flow rates to increase production. In Oklahoma, it allows for higher production rates of NG, which is our biggest producer. wells will last a considerable amount of time before being abandoned.

Fracking is a process that is better suited for non permeable rock structures.In shale plays, like North Dakota and Ohio, Fracking is a process that frees the gas from the rock and creates a high, but exponential decreasing gas flow rate. A well in these areas will last a year before production runs out. If fracking was the leading cause, I would think that we would see an increase in seismic activity in shale areas and not just a state with a major fault line and a history of little activity.

California has a 110% rule where what is taken out of the ground has to be replaced 110%. They pull the product out of the ground and the water that comes with it is pushed back into the ground as well as city water or tap water that they buy from the city. They do this because of the subsiding of the ground in California. If re-injection was a cause of this, I think that it would be evident.

Now, I won't sit here and call BS on fracking causing earthquakes, but I have yet to see any real research done on the subject by a reputable source. Can we please go back to how vaccines cause autism now?

[Jims5543]

Can we please go back to how vaccines cause autism now?

[Merlin]

Oh I love to watch her on tv with the volume down.

[MPlayle]

Her parents most likely had her vaccinated.  What went wrong?  Why is she not autistic?

[Spitz]

I must have missed it.  Who is the crazy looking "blonde".

[Merlin]

Jenny "why-don't-you-just-go-do-porn" McCarthy

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/11-things-that-jenny-mccarthy-has-said-about-vaccines#.ayVrE7qPy