Oklahoma worries about Pledge, but should worry about Earthquakes

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**Easy E**

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/02/259127792/a-sharp-rise-in-earthquakes-puts-oklahomans-on-edge

For the past three decades, Oklahoma averaged about 50 earthquakes a year. But that number has skyrocketed in the past few years. In 2013 — the state's most seismically active year ever — there were almost 3,000. The quakes are small, and they're concentrated in the central part of the state, where the Erwins live.

Amanda Erwin says that even on a clear day, she knows something's up when the thunder begins: The chandelier swings, and the walls and bed start rumbling. Her husband, Keith, says the earthquakes remind him of the artillery he used to hear growing up near a military base. And when the sound and shaking fade, the game starts.

"We're just trying to look at each other, and we play this game: What do you think it was? Er, 2.5? Nah, that had to have been a 3.0," he says. "It's a daily thing."

In October, the U.S. Geological Survey warned that Oklahoma's risk of quakes has increased tenfold. The swarm of earthquakes includes Oklahoma's largest ever, a 5.6-magnitude temblor that struck east of Oklahoma City in 2011.

"That doesn't mean that there's going to be a large earthquake tomorrow, or next month, or next year even. But those probabilities are up very substantially," says Bill Leith, senior science adviser for earthquake and geologic hazards at the USGS.

He says there's evidence linking Oklahoma's earthquakes to the state's large oil and gas industry. When they drill, toxic fluid from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and other types of drilling is injected deep underground. That can change pressures near fault lines, says Katie Keranen, a seismologist at Cornell University.

"We can show that it's quite reasonable that water flowing from these wells is actually triggering these earthquakes," Keranen says.
But while scientists say the quakes are likely connected to the wells, there's no proof. That's why regulators aren't considering new rules or laws.

Austin Holland, a research seismologist with the Oklahoma Geological Survey, says oil and gas activity might trigger earthquakes, but it could just be a natural increase.

The Two-Way
A Small 4.5 Quake Strikes During OU-OSU GameMinor Quakes Shake Oklahoma Overnight Scientists Link Rise In Quakes To Wastewater Wells "I don't think we can, at this point, attribute all the earthquakes to some sort of man-made cause," Holland says.

In the fall, state regulators did force one well operator along the Oklahoma-Texas border to reduce injection volume and pressure after a series of earthquakes nearby. But the state might allow an experiment — to let the company increase the injections to see if it does trigger more rumbling. Scientists, like Holland, would monitor the outcome.

"Or, no earthquakes happen and we say, 'Wow, that was the most amazing coincidence we've seen,' and we move on," Holland says.
Back at the Erwin home, every little noise or rumble sends them scrambling for the iPad to see if they felt a real earthquake or a phantom.
"You feel like you're playing Battleship," says Amanda Erwin. "You look at the map, and you see these little pings of all the different places where they hit."

Hmmm, they link it to Frakking, but state that their is no proof. Interesting.

Wasn;t their some articles about somethign similar happening in Ohio?

**djones520**

The correlation between frakking and earthquakes is way overblow. Standard mining supposedly causes more.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-09/fracking-doesn-t-cause-significant-quakes-university-study-says.html

**d-usa**

I'm tired of finding new cracks in my walls, that's for sure.

And even if fracking is to blame, there is way to much oil and gas money in this state for anything to happen.

**WarOne**

d-usa wrote:
I'm tired of finding new cracks in my walls, that's for sure.

And even if fracking is to blame, there is way to much oil and gas money in this state for anything to happen.

Except more earthquakes.

Of course, I could see Hollywood envisioning a movie where fracking leads to Oklahoma falling into a hole the size of...Oklahoma.

**djones520**

WarOne wrote:
d-usa wrote:
I'm tired of finding new cracks in my walls, that's for sure.

And even if fracking is to blame, there is way to much oil and gas money in this state for anything to happen.

Except more earthquakes.

Of course, I could see Hollywood envisioning a movie where fracking leads to Oklahoma falling into a hole the size of...Oklahoma.

And it'll have Brad Pitt driving a car through a building onto an airplane to escape just before the ground gives away.

**d-usa**

I would make a SyFy channel joke, but we already had an earthquake during a tornado while a wildfire was covering a couple of counties.

Oklahoma invented the Quakenado before SyFy ever thought of putting sharks in a tornado.

**Frazzled**

d-usa wrote:
I'm tired of finding new cracks in my walls, that's for sure.

And even if fracking is to blame, there is way to much oil and gas money in this state for anything to happen.

Yea but earthquakes make the ground less flat. Oklahoma should welcome this. Its like the flattest place on the planet. Seriously, you don't even need roads because everything is a road its so flat.

Mind you Houston is flat too, it just slopes towards the sea a little, else we'd all drown. And we have mosquitoes.

**azazel the cat**

WarOne wrote:
d-usa wrote:
I'm tired of finding new cracks in my walls, that's for sure.

And even if fracking is to blame, there is way to much oil and gas money in this state for anything to happen.

Except more earthquakes.

Of course, I could see Hollywood envisioning a movie where fracking leads to Oklahoma falling into a hole the size of...Oklahoma.

Oklahoma's already a hole.

Spoiler:

**Kilkrazy**

If it happened presumably it would be Obama's fault because socialism but if Zimmerman had been stuffing bullets into clips it would be your own fault for being so poor as to have to live there. Obviously.

**Seaward**

Kilkrazy wrote:
If it happened presumably it would be Obama's fault because socialism but if Zimmerman had been stuffing bullets into clips it would be your own fault for being so poor as to have to live there. Obviously.

Wow. Swing and a miss.

**djones520**

I don't think he was being serious.

**Seaward**

djones520 wrote:
I don't think he was being serious.

I know. I was referring to the comedy.

**d-usa**

Besides, everybody knows that the Earthquakes are God's punishment for the gays...

**djones520**

d-usa wrote:
Besides, everybody knows that the Earthquakes are God's punishment for the gays...

I know, look at San Fran. Earthquakes all the time.

**Kilkrazy**

Seaward wrote:
djones520 wrote:
I don't think he was being serious.

I know. I was referring to the comedy.

I'm here all week.

**Ouze**

djones520 wrote:
The correlation between frakking and earthquakes is way overblow. Standard mining supposedly causes more.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-09/fracking-doesn-t-cause-significant-quakes-university-study-says.html

A think tank sponsored by BP, Chevron, Conocophillips, iGas, and Shell think fracking is pretty safe? Unpossible!

**WarOne**

Ouze wrote:
djones520 wrote:
The correlation between frakking and earthquakes is way overblow. Standard mining supposedly causes more.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-09/fracking-doesn-t-cause-significant-quakes-university-study-says.html

A think tank sponsored by BP, Chevron, Conocophillips, iGas, and Shell think fracking is pretty safe? Unpossible!

I would rather that all possibilities by them that happen simultaneously be labeled as Conpossible instead.

**BaronIveagh**

Actually, I hate to point this out, but there actually is evidence linking the fracking and Earthquakes.

http://www.livescience.com/22151-fracking-earthquakes-fluid-injection.html

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/fracking-practices-blame-ohio-earthquakes-8C11073601

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/06/3029951/texas-fracking-earthquakes/

http://www.usgs.gov/faq/?q=categories/9833/3426

The ones in Ohio are more or less a dead give away, since that region has not had an earthquake as long as records have been kept, but the moment a injection well started up, they started having 2.0+ quakes, that see to have petered out as soon as the well was shut down.

**djones520**

Yes... frakking causes earthquakes. Just as mining does and other activities we undertake that involves going into the dirt.

The severity of them is pretty tiny though. A 2.0 most people would never even notice.

**Dreadclaw69**

Kilkrazy wrote:
If it happened presumably it would be Obama's fault because socialism but if Zimmerman had been stuffing bullets into clips it would be your own fault for being so poor as to have to live there. Obviously.

No Godwin, nor victim blaming?

**BaronIveagh**

djones520 wrote:
Yes... frakking causes earthquakes. Just as mining does and other activities we undertake that involves going into the dirt.

The severity of them is pretty tiny though. A 2.0 most people would never even notice.

The problem isn't the noticing, it's the structural damage. This is not California where the buildings are built with earthquake proofing in mind.

**hotsauceman1**

d-usa wrote:
I'm tired of finding new cracks in my walls, that's for sure.

And even if fracking is to blame, there is way to much oil and gas money in this state for anything to happen.

No it is the Tardis exploding causing the cracks.
and 50 a year oh damn

**Ouze**

I'm not necessarily against fracking but I think we should be concerned about the groundwater pollution and yes, with the earthquakes. Even the fact that "minor, 2.0" earthquakes are occurring in a region which previously had none is I think worthy of further examination.

**whembly**

Ouze wrote:
I'm not necessarily against fracking but I think we should be concerned about the groundwater pollution and yes, with the earthquakes. Even the fact that "minor, 2.0" earthquakes are occurring in a region which previously had none is I think worthy of further examination.

My google-fu is broken at the moment... but, I remember there was a study the Obama ordered into this.

That study is over, but we haven't heard anything yet. Wonder why?

Also, fwiw, my brother is in this industry. He says it's simply a new technique in extraction... and as with ANY mining technique, if you don't repect the environment, you'd can feth it up.

Also, he says the regulation for these methods are thick.

**Kilkrazy**

It's common sense that if you change solid rock into holes, whether by fracking or conventional deep mining, you are liable to get subsidence afterwards.

**BaronIveagh**

Kilkrazy wrote:
It's common sense that if you change solid rock into holes, whether by fracking or conventional deep mining, you are liable to get subsidence afterwards.

Usually though even serous subsidence is usually very limited as far as temblors go. We're talking about quakes that can be felt over a wide area. Up into the 4's and maybe 5s.

**Kilkrazy**

Maybe fracking is worse than conventional deep mining for the creation of subterranean instability.