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Geologists document growing number of small quakes in the midsection of the country
By Summit Voice
SUMMIT COUNTY — Federal scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey say they’ve detected a “remarkable” increase in the rate of earthquakes in the middle of the country, most likely related to oil and gas drilling activities.
All in all, the average number of quakes magnitude 3 or greater has increased six-fold since 2001 over 20th century levels. None of the quakes have caused injuries or property damage.
“While the seismicity rate changes described here are almost certainly manmade, it remains to be determined how they are related to either changes in extraction methodologies or the rate of oil and gas production,” USGS researchers wrote in an abstract of a recent paper.
Between 1970 and 2000, the average number of earthquakes stronger than magnitude 3 was at about 21, plus or minus seven. That rate increased to about 29 per year (plus or minus three) between 2001 and 2008, and jumped to 50 in 2009, 87 in 2010 and 134 in 2011.
“A naturally-occurring rate change of this magnitude is unprecedented outside of volcanic settings or in the absence of a main shock, of which there were neither in this region,” the researchers wrote.
Researchers have pointed out that no earthquake triggered by fluid injection has ever caused serious injury or significant damage, although that may not be quite enough to soothe some residents who feel beset by energy development in their neighborhoods.
Scientists have known for several decades that quakes can be triggered by injection of fluids deep into the ground. Some of the first well-documented cases were earthquakes around Rocky Mountain Arsenal.
Filed under: Colorado, Environment, gas drilling, oil drilling, Summit County news Tagged: | earthquakes, fracking, gas drilling, shale oil, United States Geological Survey
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Earthquakes aside, fluid injection is going to come back and bite us. I don’t believe that the water / chemicals deep in the ground won’t mix with shallower water in the crust. We know that its coming up here in Colorado through hot springs etc but what about where there are not thermal vents?
As most people know the closer to the core you get, the warmer the Earth. My thought is that since warmer water is going to rise and colder water is going to sink, at some point there will be mixing. Just a gallon of gasoline will contaminate 1,000,000 gallons of water. What happens when these chemicals hit the aquifers? While I doubt that we are injecting gasoline into the earth, we need to find out exactly what is going down there.
This is new information to me. I’ve thought oil and gas drilling could upset things, but I’ve never seen an article like this. In Iowa, lawmakers and MidAmerican Energy are trying to get another nuclear reactor going, and many of us think it’s a bad idea because of tornadoes. Now, 134 earthquakes higher than magnitude 3 in 2011 when just 10 years ago, only 29 earthquakes in our region were higher than 3 magnitude. That’s a trend and a potential problem for nuclear safety.