Fracking May Have Caused 50 Earthquakes in Oklahoma

Written by Brian Merchant, Treehugger

In a surprising turn of events, Cuadrilla Resources, a British energy company, recently admitted that its hydraulic fracturing operations “likely” caused an earthquake in England. Predictably, this news quickly sent a shockwave through the U.K., the oil and natural gas industries, and the environmental activist community. And it certainly feeds plenty of speculation that the same phenomenon could be occurring elsewhere.

Speculation that would be well-founded, evidently. Right on the heels of Cuadrilla’s announcement, news is spreading that the United States Geological Survey has released a report (pdf) that links a series of earthquakes in Oklahoma last January to a fracking operation underway there. Evidently, a resident reported feeling some minor earthquakes, spurring the USGS to investigate. They found that some 50 small earthquakes had indeed been registered, ranging in magnitude from 1.0 to 2.8. The bulk of these occurred within 2.1 miles of Eola Field, a fracking operation in southern Garvin County.

The U.S.G.S. determined that “from the character of the seismic recordings indicate that they are both shallow and unique.”

From the report:

Our analysis showed that shortly after hydraulic fracturing began small earthquakes started occurring, and more than 50 were identified, of which 43 were large enough to be located. Most of these earthquakes occurred within a 24 hour period after hydraulic fracturing operations had ceased. There have been previous cases where seismologists have suggested a link between hydraulic fracturing and earthquakes, but data was limited, so drawing a definitive conclusion was not possible for these cases.

The report is still under peer-review, and even then, the correlation between fracking and the quakes is inconclusive. The U.S.G.S. notes that region has historically been seismically active, though the summary states that the “strong correlation in time and space as well as a reasonable fit to a physical model suggest that there is a possibility these earthquakes were induced by hydraulic fracturing.”

Needless to say, it’s become much less far-fetched to presume that fracking has a serious impact on seismic activity. And so, yet another reason emerges to be wary of the secretive processes that underly the nation’s most controversial gas-extraction process: Fracking earthquakes.

This post was originally published by Treehugger.

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Read more: earthquakes, fracking, oklahoma, seismic activity, treehugger, USGS

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Colin G.

6:00AM PDT on Apr 25, 2012

Fracking as well as using vast quantities of water also contaminates the ground water supply. The worlds water resources are all ready in a very fragile state, with world war 3 more likely to be over water than anything else, so we can ill afford to contaminate what little fresh water that we have. At present we need oil and gas but more important to the inhabitants of our world is water.

send a green star

Deirdre B.

3:53PM PDT on Apr 24, 2012

Fracking needs to be banned.

Ruth R.

3:13PM PDT on Apr 17, 2012

SO -- RICH OR POOR -- STORE THE REVERSE OSMOSIS, CHARCOAL (ACTIVATED), WATER FILTERS, SOLAR DISTILLERS TO HAVE DISTILLED WATER, AND STORE WATER.

3:11PM PDT on Apr 17, 2012

Fracking equals less clean water. Water is more valuable then natural gas -- if you think about it. The natural gas you can live without until they find a way to get it without hurting the earth. WATER IS WHAT THE RICH PEOPLE ARE STORING -- WHILE ENCOURAING THE USE OF NATURAL GAS.

Daphne H.

1:02PM PST on Jan 6, 2012

I sent out an e-mail this morning to dozens on my contact list asking if I was the only one that had not heard of 'fracking'. I don't have stupid friends but most were also ignorant of this. We need to wake up. If we poison our water and/or crack open our earth the obvious end is in sight.

Mercedes L.

4:37AM PST on Dec 12, 2011

Surprised? You should be more surprised that no one has "noticed this" until now. Back in the mid-late 60s a plan was floated in California to trigger earthquakes by....guess what...injecting a slurry of water, sand and chemicals very similar to the fracking mix into the earth. The idea was that by triggering smaller earthquakes, you'd take the pressure off faultlines and prevent the "Big One." The plan was quickly scrapped when it was realized that there was no predicting just how big the "small" triggered earthquakes would be.

And yes, since I happen to live here...fracking stops, earthquakes stop. Fracking starts, earthquakes start.

Beverly G.

7:38PM PST on Nov 13, 2011

i think all this digging, drilling blowing up ,quarrys, mining for gemstones, oil aint helping one iota. Thats wots causing a lot of it...

tasunka m.

12:44PM PST on Nov 12, 2011

the fracking fallout ,has only just begun
get ready for a lot of earthquakes and tsunamis.

Susan W.

12:15AM PST on Nov 11, 2011

We sure are hell bent on destroying the world. Clear- cutting, killing animals to extintion, pollution, poisoning our world with chemicals, pesticides, over population and fracking.

Guess we will only learn when the world crumbles around us or becomes inhabitable to live.

Dave C.

8:01PM PST on Nov 10, 2011

noted, lets hope those who can change these actions listen and realize.