by Steve St. Angelo, SRSRocco Report:
Over the past eight years, earthquake activity in Oklahoma has increase substantially. Before 2009, Oklahoma experienced one or two low magnitude earthquakes per year. However, after 2014, Oklahoma has been suffering from 0ne to two low magnitude earthquakes per day. While many people believe the huge increase in earthquake in Oklahoma is due to oil and gas fracking….. it isn’t.
Before we get into the real reason, let’s check out the two charts below:
As we can see, Oklahoma earthquake activity in 2016 is much greater than it was in 2009. Not only are there a lot more earthquakes, there were several greater than a 5.0 magnitude. Again, many people assume that this huge increase in earthquake activity is due to the fracking of oil and gas wells. While fracking causes a lot of other environmental and health issues, it isn’t the cause of Oklahoma’s increased earthquake activity.
So, what is? The culprit is the massive DEEP WASTEWATER INJECTION of the by-product of shale oil and gas production. Fracking an oil or gas well produces a great deal of wastewater. This wastewater is full of toxins and chemicals that cannot be stored above-ground… because there is so much of it. To get rid of this wastewater, the oil and gas industry re-injects it deep in the ground… under pressure.
Here is a chart from the U.S. EIA – Energy Information Agency that shows the increase in Oklahoma earthquake activity:
As we can see, the majority of the increase in earthquake activity is taking place in Oklahoma. This is due to Oklahoma’s geology. According to a recent report by the EIA called, Earthquake Trends In Oklahoma & Other States Likely Related To Wastewater Injection:
In addition to the increased use of wastewater injection related to oil and natural gas production in the region, the geologic conditions in central Oklahoma are conducive to triggering seismic activity. The rock underlying the formations where disposal water is being injected in the region has existing faults that are susceptible to the changing stresses caused by fluid injection. Without these geologic conditions, induced seismicity would be much less common. For example, induced seismicity in the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana is relatively rare.
The USGS report indicates that the recent decline may be related to decreased wastewater injection, because production in the region has decreased since the 2014 drop in oil prices. Actions by authorities in various states to regulate wastewater injection practices and restrict injection into the most sensitive areas may also be helping to reduce both the number and intensity of small earthquakes.
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