Pages

Jump to bottom

6 comments

1 Talking Point Detective  Feb 28, 2015 5:19:06pm

Sort of technically - it’s not really the fracking itself that causes the earthquakes - but the high pressure injection of the waste water.

2 lostlakehiker  Feb 28, 2015 6:21:30pm

Also sort of technically—-how dangerous, really, is a magnitude three earthquake? Wikipedia’s article on the “Richter scale” has a discussion.

2.0-2.9 Minor I to II Felt slightly by some people. No damage to buildings. Over one million per year
3.0-3.9 II to IV Often felt by people, but very rarely causes damage. Shaking of indoor objects can be noticeable. Over 100,000 per year

That would be worldwide. So with 100 000 per year, Oklahoma’s share of that would come to about 30 a year. Maybe less since OK isn’t an active fault zone, but still.

These earthquakes are literally earthshaking, but metaphorically speaking, they’re hiccups.

Now don’t get me wrong—-I know that humanity is causing the earth to warm and that there are real and dangerous consequences to using so much fossil fuel. But this particular consequence, while real, is not dangerous.

3 Talking Point Detective  Feb 28, 2015 6:28:34pm

re: #2 lostlakehiker

That said, I don’t think that the evidence is conclusive that there might not be larger earthquakes as a consequence also.

4 Uraniabce  Feb 28, 2015 11:09:52pm

That’s the real problem. No one knows how bad the earthquakes can get, especially in an area that already prone to earthquake. Like California.

5 Higgs Boson's Mate  Mar 1, 2015 8:07:14am

In 2014 the USGS released a new map of US earthquake hazard zones. California isn’t the only state at risk. There’s also the fact that earthquake damage is cumulative and only a dozen or so coastal or near-coastal states have seismic building codes. Notably, Missouri, which shares the New Madrid fault with Arkansas doesn’t have seismic building codes while Arkansas does. Earthquakes are not covered by standard homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. You have to buy earthquake coverage separately and it isn’t cheap. Hydraulic fracking may or may not trigger significant earthquakes that do significant damage. If it does you can bet that the companies involved won’t pay a dime for their liability.

6 Decatur Deb  Mar 1, 2015 8:17:19am

There is potential for significant quakes from injection of the right volumes.
Rocky Mountain Arsenal paid claims resulting from a deep chemical waste disposal well.

In 1961, a 12,000-foot well was drilled at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, northeast of Denver, for disposing of waste fluids from Arsenal operations. Injection was commenced March 1962, and an unusual series of earthquakes erupted in the area shortly after.

It was 32 minutes after 4 a.m. on April 24 when the first shock of the Denver series was recorded at the Cecil H. Green Geophysical Observatory at Bergen Park, Colorado. Rated magnitude 1.5, it was not strong enough to be felt by area residents. By the end of December 1962, 190 earthquakes had occurred. Several were felt, but none caused damage until the window breaker that surprised Dupont and Irondale on the night of December 4. The shock shuffled furniture around in homes, and left electrical wall outlets hanging by their wires at Irondale.

Over 1,300 earthquakes were recorded at Bergen Park between January 1963 and August 9, 1967. Three shocks in 1965 — February 16, September 29, and November 20 — caused intensity VI damage in Commerce City and environs.

The Denver series was forgotten, however temporarily, in October 1966, when a southeast Colorado tremor rocked a 15,000 square-mile area of that State and bordering New Mexico. Minor damage, in the form of broken windows and dishes and cracked walls and plaster, occurred at Aguilar, Segundo, Trinchera, and Trinidad.

Another strong shock rumbled through the Denver area on November 14, 1966, causing some damage at Commerce City and Eastlake. Slighter rumblings (below magnitude 3.0) occurred throughout the remainder of 1966, and through the first week of April 1967.

Then, on April 10, the largest since the series began in 1962 occurred; 118 windowpanes were broken in buildings at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, a crack in an asphalt parking lot was noted in the Derby area, and schools were dismissed in Boulder, where walls sustained cracks. Legislators quickly moved from beneath chandeliers in the Denver Capitol Building, fearing they might fall. The Colorado School of Mines rated this shock magnitude 5.0.

Boulder sustained minor damage to walls and acoustical tile ceilings on April 27, 1967, as result of a magnitude 4.4 earthquake. Then a year and half after the Rocky Mountain Arsenal waste dumping practice stopped, the strongest and most widely felt shock in Denver’s history struck that area on August 9, 1967, at 6:25 in the morning. The magnitude 5.3 tremor caused the most serious damage at Northglenn, where concrete pillar supports to a church roof were weakened, and 20 windows were broken. An acoustical ceiling and light fixtures fell at one school. Many homeowners reported wall, ceiling, floor, patio, sidewalk, and foundation cracks. Several reported basement floors separated from walls. Extremely loud, explosivelike earth noises were heard. Damage on a lesser scale occurred throughout the area.

earthquake.usgs.gov


This page has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh
Detroit Local Powers First EV Charging Road in North America The road, about a mile from Local 58's hall, uses rubber-coated copper inductive-charging coils buried under the asphalt that transfer power to a receiver pad attached to a car's underbelly, much like how a phone can be charged wirelessly. ...
Backwoods Sleuth
3 days ago
Views: 190 • Comments: 1 • Rating: 4