Scientists link rise in seismic activity in Oklahoma to increased oil and gas exploration

Between 1975 and 2008, Oklahoma recorded an average of no more than six earthquakes per year, yet now it is the second most seismically active of the contiguous United States, beaten only by California. Scientists have linked this surge in seismic activity to a parallel increase in oil and gas exploration, including fracking.

In 2009, there were almost 50 quakes in Oklahoma. The following year, that number leapt to more than 1,000. Most were not “felt” earthquakes – those of magnitude 2.5 and above, which can be detected by humans. However, the state’s annual record of 222 felt quakes, set in 2013, has already been broken this year, with 253 so far. Seismologist Austin Holland of the Oklahoma Geological Survey told Reuters: “We have had almost as many magnitude 3 and greater already in 2014 than we did for all of 2013… We have already crushed last year’s record for number of earthquakes.”

Earthquakes rarely cause damage unless they are of magnitude 4 or higher. A 4.3-magnitude temblor struck the same area near Oklahoma City on 30 March. In November 2011, the state suffered a 5.6-magnitude quake – the largest ever recorded in Oklahoma – which destroyed 14 homes.

Scientists have connected a sharp rise in small earthquakes in several states to the boom in underground oil and gas exploration, notably the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Waste water from fracking and oil drilling is pumped back into the earth to be stored in so-called “injection wells”. Several studies have shown that the water, forced deep underground in layers of porous rock, can trigger seismic activity.

Oil and gas companies insist that the techniques are safe, yet federal scientists believe their activities have contributed to a 20-fold rise in the number of small earthquakes striking the central and southern US in recent years. So-called “earthquake swarms” have occurred not only in Oklahoma, but also in previously sedate regions of Arkansas, Colorado, Ohio and Texas.

During 2010 and 2011, up to 1,000 micro-earthquakes occurred in and around the town of Greenbrier in Arkansas, thought to have been caused by underground waste-water disposal, which forced open a small and previously inactive seismic fault, generating the quakes – the largest of which had a magnitude of 4.7. The state’s oil and gas commission declared a moratorium on injection wells within 1,000 square miles, and a group of residents filed a class-action lawsuit against two energy companies, Chesapeake Energy and BHP Billiton Petroleum, for the damage caused to their homes. Five homeowners reached an undisclosed settlement with the firms last August.

Read more: Fracking industry launches charm offensive
Fracking threat to British wildlife
US fracking has had a ‘significant impact’ on water supplies

Dozens of civil lawsuits related to fracking have been filed since 2009 in eight US states, for complaints including air pollution, noise pollution and groundwater contamination. But the Greenbrier case was the first in which oil and gas companies were sued for causing an earthquake. It may not be the last. Within 24 hours on 10 and 11 March, five earthquakes were recorded at a fracking well in Ohio, the largest of which registered as magnitude 3.

The state’s government ordered an immediate halt to the operations pending further investigation.

It is already familiar with the issue. In December 2010, an injection well in Youngstown began deep-storing waste water from fracking operations in neighbouring Pennsylvania. In the centuries since records began in 1776, Youngstown – which sits atop the Marcellus Shale gas-producing region – had never registered a single earthquake. In 2011, it experienced more than 100, with the strongest, a magnitude-3.9 temor, on 31 December.

The well was shut down shortly afterwards, and the quakes duly stopped. John Kasich, the state governor, issued an executive order demanding operators conduct seismic studies before being issued permits for injection wells.

The controversy has also come to California, a state that is all too familiar with seismic activity. This year, the Los Angeles city council voted to ban fracking in the city until council members were content that the process would not have a detrimental effect on Angelenos’ drinking water. The risk of earthquakes was also cited in the ban.

On 17 March a 4.4-magnitude earthquake struck the Santa Monica mountains near Los Angeles, close to an area where oil extraction activities have been reported. Though seismologists said it probably occurred too deep underground to be attributable to fracking, a group of LA council members have demanded an investigation into whether oil or gas exploration could have caused the quake.

12 Comments on "Scientists link rise in seismic activity in Oklahoma to increased oil and gas exploration"

Plantagenet on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 3:16 am 



You can’t make an omelet without breaking the eggs. Frakking is the same way—if you want the oil you have to frak.

Kenz300 on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 3:54 am 



Wind and solar are safer, cleaner and cheaper with little or no environmental risks.

Arthur on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 8:00 am 



Same problems in Holland here. We have what was once the 9th largest gasfield in the world, in the Groningen province. Now there is a big discussion here if we should decrease the extraction of gas because of all the seismic activity, earth-quakes, prolapses, causing damage to buildings and roads and it is getting worse:

http://tinyurl.com/nqrfs32

Arthur on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 8:40 am 



In the green areas the soil subsidence amounted to 30 cm and counting:

http://www.wanttoknow.nl/wp-content/uploads/bodemdaling-Groningen-1024×710.jpg

Original contents Groningen gas field: 2100 km3

en . wikipedia . org/wiki/List_of_natural_gas_fields

Now I do not know at what pressure (and liquid volume equivalent) this 2100 km3 relates to (rockman?!), but it is clear that you can’t extract even 2.1 km3 and expect to notice nothing ‘upstairs’.

rockman on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 12:10 pm 



First for Arthur: you have a similar problem but a different cause. I’m sure you didn’t mean to imply that frac’ng was the cause of the problems in the Groningen province since there is no history of frac’ng there. The seismic activity is strictly related to the NG production. I understand that the gov’t has made plans to reduce the production rate. “… you can’t extract even 2.1 km3 and expect to notice nothing ‘upstairs’.” So true: the gov’t there should be ashamed of producing all that NG…they owned. LOL.

And now on to OK: one problem with the correlation of frac’ng to earth quakes: they note a significant change in the metric after 3008. One big problem: there have been many times more wells drilled and frac’d in OK before 2008. In fact, due the abundance of tite conventional reservoirs OK became the focus of developing frac tech all the way back in the 1950’s. But since the “evils” od frac’ng stories sells advertisement the MSM goes that way. Much sexier than the real oil field activity causing the seismic activity increase: pumping down plain salt water under low pressure. Just doesn’t jump up and grab your attention, eh? LOL.

And now the rest of the story from Scientific American:
“Given the simultaneous uptick in fracking it’s common to suspect a link. But the real culprit behind the largest earthquake in Oklahoma’s recorded history is not what goes down but what comes up with the oil: wastewater. One of the side effects of oil production is that a lot of water flows back to the surface with the petroleum. That flow back water must be disposed of. In Oklahoma and in much of the rest of the country, the most common burial ground for such wastewater is a disposal well back underground. Oil producers in central Oklahoma had been using this approach for decades when a swarm of powerful earthquakes rumbled across the countryside starting on November 5, 2011. The biggest temblor, a magnitude 5.7 felt as far away as Milwaukee, was linked to pumping yet more wastewater down old oil wells in the vicinity. The wastewater pumping there continues despite the quakes.

According to a new study published online March 26 in Geology, the earthquake was indeed caused by filling up the old oil cavities with water until there was simply too much pressure on the surrounding rock. Records showed that after years of requiring little pressure to dump the wastewater, oil operators recently have had to actively pump the water down the old wells to overcome a more than 10-fold increase in underground pressure, which peaked or 525 pounds-per-square-inch (compared to the tens of thousands of pounds of pressure used in frac’ng). That’s because the volume of wastewater pumped down had exceeded the volume of oil extracted, suggests the team of researchers from the University of Oklahoma, Columbia University and the U.S. Geological Survey. That increased pressure then caused the rock to jump along a pre-existing fault, known as the Wilzetta Fault.”

And now you have the rest to the story. Not as an exciting headline as “FRAC’NG WIPES OUT OKLAHOMA!!!” but a tad more accurate.

rockman on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 12:11 pm 



Obviously 2008 and not “3008”. LOL.

sunweb on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 12:55 pm 



Kenz300 on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 3:54 am

Wind and solar are safer, cleaner and cheaper with little or no environmental risks.
Been down this road many times. Hopium strikes again.
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2014/03/reality-again.html

sunweb on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 12:58 pm 



Rockman – and this isn’t related to fracking how?
and
I think Plantagenet says it all. We all are culpable – here and globally

Plantagenet
You can’t make an omelet without breaking the eggs. Frakking is the same way—if you want the oil you have to frak.

buddavis on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 1:26 pm 



sunweb

saltwater is associated with all prodcution wells. Fraced or producing naturally. Fracing has nothing to do with the earthquakes. From the story, it is the disposal or the saltwater from wells (some fraced some not) into formations that become overpressured that does it.

If Oklahoma banned frac jobs tomorrow, producers would still be disposing of saltwater from all the prodcuing wells.

rockman on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 2:29 pm 



As Bud explains neither the water or Mother Earth knows if the disposed fluid comes from a frac’d well or not. The could have been injecting Pepsi and seen the same result. Apparently using the “frac ” played in your emotions as hoped. So no the fact that wells in the area were frac’d had nothing to do with it. Did you also get the important detail that frac’ng has been going on long before the quake activity picked up? But what concerns me is that the seismic activity seems to correlate very closely to when a Democrat began occupying the White House. So maybe if an R gets elected next time things will quiet down in OK. LOL.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Research “Rocky Mountain Aresenal disposal well. The US govt (not the oil patch) caused a noteworthy incident such as this many years ago.

Boat on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 3:45 pm 



If frac causes earthquakes why isn’t Eagle Ford and Bakken areas not being shaken to death.

rockman on Mon, 7th Apr 2014 5:43 pm 



Boat – Not that I think frac’ng is a serious issue regarding earth quakes but geology varies. So what activity might have certain repercussions in one area won’t necessarily cause them in another…and visa versa. But as I pointed the key problem with their argument (besides the fact they’ve already identified the salt water disposal as the cause) is their ridiculous correlation implying that the earth quakes happened only after frac’ng began when in reality frac’ng has been going on OK for decades before when seismic activity was relatively low by their own admission.

But more to the point: given all this chatter of earth quakes caused by frac’ng or other oil patch activities: how many have died in those earth quakes: none; how many have been injured: none: how much monetary loses has been report: haven’t seen the claim of even $10 worth of damage. If I’ve missed it I’m sure someone will correct me. There are literally hundreds of thousands of very low energy earth quakes in the US every year. Around areas like Yellow Stone they are nearly continuous.

From my observation many that jump on the frac’ng cause earth quakes” theme are anti-frac’ng in the first place. Which is OK…everyone has a right to their opinion. But the earth quake link looks all too opportunistic IMHO.