June 27, 2017 (day after the silly paper was reported on in main media) Natural Resources Canada: 3.6M earthquake at Fox Creek, Encana and Haliburton fracking in the area (Nothing about this one on AER /AGS yet; they record 6 earthquakes, all under 2.1 mag, for the month of June, 2017):
***
An important reported 2017 tidbit about CAPP, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers:
“This year, CAPP is charging members a fee of $4.64 per barrel of oil equivalent they produce, up to a maximum of $3.1 million plus general sales tax.“
Many CAPP members frack.
Most of the articles don’t allow comments (likely because the study is so silly and the media knows it. A few hours after this post was made public, comments were allowed). A few comments by Albertans:
First impression:
This is the single most stupid waste of time paper I’ve read in a long time.
We don’t know, not enough data, areas are different, low risk areas have low induced siesmicity – but the opposite isn’t necessarily true. Because … we know nothing, we need more study, there’s gaps in the data, the areas have different geology- in some cases previously unknown faults, some areas have correlated events but we don’t know why, some respond to fluid volume, some do not, some to number of stages, some do not …
Yet, the overall tone is dismissal and minimize.
I will read again with more care and attention – but REALLY. I am embarrassed for them.
by another Albertan:
Just enough BS to make one choke. EnCana’s donations to the university are starting to buy the research conclusions they want. And of course CAPP is one of those unbiased groups to draw information from….
What an insult to intelligent people!!
Comment on Facebook by Diana Daunheimer, emphasis added:
Van Der Been: “I collaborate intensively with the oil and gas industry on all of these topics. [My website] contains full information on ongoing industry-funded projects such as Blind Identification of Seismic Signals (BLISS) and the Microseismic Industry Consortium.”
The Microseismic Industry Consortium is sponsored by Andarka, ConocoPhillips, Itasca, Nexen, Aquaterra, Birchcliff, Chevron, Devon, Husky, Murphy, Shell, Pioneer, Repsol, Trican, Total and others and Eaton (the other U of A industry friendly scientist and colleague of Van Der Been) gave two presentations at the Petroleum Club in Jan of 2017.
Snap taken June 27, 2017 of Microseismic Industry Consortium Sponsors.
Another industry funded U of A scientist, that is word-smithing data and facts on hydraulic fracturing and induced seismic events, preventing full public disclosure and corrupting the learning process. Are there any ethics left in academia?
Van Der Been: “…and about 200 magnitude 3.0 or higher seismic events have been recorded since the 1970s.”
There have been over 630 frac induced quakes in the Fox Creek region since monitoring under Subsurface Order #2 began in Jan of 2015, available for viewing in Excel at the AER Spotlight on Seismicity. This is the only area in which the order is being applied. No other region in Alberta is being monitored for HF induced quakes, yet, it is happening all across the province. High volume multi stage fracture propagations, are designed to destroy normally stable or tight geologic formations to facilitate the release of embedded hydrocarbons. The very processes intent is to create micro seismic events. As areas are under continual and ongoing siege from industry, with trillions of m3 of injected fracture slurries, chemical breakers and production waste being injected into target formations, natural and induced faults will create more stress and release dynamics.
Van Der Been: “It is pretty clear immediately that not every single hydraulic fracturing treatment is going to cause an earthquake which is potentially damaging,”
Lobby speak. Potentially damaging? Place that shallow 5 magnitude quake under a town or city and you will be damaging infrastructure, such as in Oklahoma. What city or town in Alberta has built with induced seismicity in mind? None. What measures are there to protect homeowners and municipalities from induced events? Nothing. In fact, insurance riders are exempting HF induced events from coverage. Industry chose Fox Creek for a reason, there is little to damage and what damage there happens to be, is hidden from the public by industries radio controlled roads and the remote nature of many of these operations.
What happens when they frack under Edmonton? Why are the frack quakes in [Rocky Mountain House] being ignored? Van der Been is calling for more monitoring, as it means more money in his research pocket, but, it will do nothing to protect natural resources, property or public health.
Expect frac quakes to increase and give it another year or two and the narrative will change again, just like how in years past, every oil and gas producer, lobbyist and synergy, even some AER stakeholder employees touring around community meetings, adamantly denied fracking causes induced seismic events
Human-induced seismicity and large-scale hydrocarbon production in the USA and Canada by Mirko van der Baan and Frank J. Calixto, Received: Mar 10, 2017; Revised: Mar 10, 2017; Accepted manuscript online: 9 June 2017, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, DOI 10.1002/2017GC006915, American Geophysical Union
[Reported by Main Media June 26, 2017]
Abstract
We compare current and historic seismicity rates in six States in the USA and three Provinces in Canada to past and present hydrocarbon production. All States/Provinces are major hydrocarbon producers. Our analyses span three to five decades depending on data availability. Total hydrocarbon production has significantly increased in the past few years in these regions. Increased production in most areas is due to large-scale hydraulic fracturing and thus underground fluid injection. Furthermore, increased hydrocarbon production generally leads to increased water production, which must be treated, recycled or disposed of underground. Increased fluid injection enhances the likelihood of fault reactivation, which may affect current seismicity rates.
We find that increased seismicity in Oklahoma, likely due to salt-water disposal, has an 85% correlation with oil production. Yet, the other areas do not display State/Province-wide correlations between increased seismicity and production, despite 8-16 fold increases in production in some States. However in various cases seismicity has locally increased.
Multiple factors play an important role in determining the likelihood of anthropogenic activities influencing earthquake rates, including (i) the near-surface tectonic background rate, (ii) the existence of critically stressed and favorably oriented faults, which must be hydraulically connected to injection wells, (iii) the orientation and magnitudes of the in situ stress field, combined with (iv) the injection volumes and implemented depletion strategies. A comparison with the seismic hazard maps for the USA and Canada shows that induced seismicity is less likely in areas with a lower hazard. The opposite however is not necessarily true.
Synopsis
There has been significant public and scientific interest in the observation of changed seismicity rates in North America since 2008, possibly [??? Many of the earthquakes have already been proven caused by either waste injection and or fracking] due to human activities. We find that the seismicity rate in Oklahoma between 2008-2016 is strongly correlated to increased hydrocarbon production. The possibility of systematic correlations between increased hydrocarbon production and seismicity rates is a pertinent question since the USA became the world’s largest hydrocarbon producer in 2013, surpassing both Saudi Arabia’s oil production and Russia’s dry gas production. In most areas increased production is due to systematic hydraulic fracturing which involves high-pressure, underground fluid injection. Increased hydrocarbon production also leads to increased salt-water production which is often disposed of underground. Increased underground fluid injection in general may cause increased seismicity rates due to facilitated slip on pre-existing faults. Contrary to Oklahoma, analysis of oil and gas production versus seismicity rates in six other States in the USA and three provinces in Canada finds no State/Province-wide correlation between increased seismicity and hydrocarbon production, despite 8-16 fold increases in production in some States. However, in various areas, seismicity rates have increased locally. We find also that human-induced seismicity is less likely in areas that have historically felt fewer earthquakes. [How does that explain NE BC, Fox Creek, Rocky Mountain House, Cardston, Oklahoma, Texas?]
…
Methods
…
We consider only events with magnitudes larger than three….
We discard all events deeper than 15km since we are only interested in seismicity that may be triggered due to human activities at the surface.
…
Within Canada, we consider the provinces of
Alberta (renewed oil production from existing conventional plays and new tight plays such as the Montney and Duvernay shales),
British Columbia (increased hydrocarbon production from tight Horn River and Montney shales) and
Saskatchewan (tight oil from Bakken shale),
and within the USA,
Pennsylvania,
West Virginia (tight gas from Marcellus shale),
Oklahoma (Woodford shale, Hunton and Mississippi Lime dewatering plays),
North Dakota (tight oil from Bakken shale), and on-shore
Texas (tight oil from Eagle Ford shale and Permian basin, tight gas from Barnett and Haynesville-Bossier shales).
[Why did they leave out California? Data wouldn’t fit CAPP’s preferred conclusion?]
…
In all cases, only events with magnitudes M≥3 and depths less than 15km are extracted. [By conveniently selecting this magnitude to limit their study, the researchers are leaving out most of the quakes caused by fracking, either directly, or via waste injection.]
…
The hydrocarbon production information comes from a variety of sources (Table 1). For
the continental USA, we use data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration
(http://www.eia.gov), which publishes monthly oil and gas production per state since 1981, as well as rig counts for various plays since 2007. Canadian production statistics come from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (http://www.capp.ca) and the National Energy Board (http://www.neb-one.gc.ca) who publish respectively monthly and yearly statistics per Province since 1998 and 1947. Oil and gas production statistics for Canada are converted to thousands of barrels (oil) and to MMcf (gas), respectively, to facilitate comparison. Again no further screening was implemented and statistics are reproduced as reported by the agencies.
[What? Not double checking CAPP’s stats? CAPP is the oil and gas industry’s biggest propaganda and lobby group in Canada – CAPP gains much by discrediting and or downplaying the already proven waste injection/fracking and earthquake relationship.]
…
Fracking rarely linked to earthquakes, U of A professor says by Dustin Cook, June 26, 2017, Calgary Herald [Same article as below]
Fracking rarely linked to earthquakes, U of A professor says by Edmonton Sun, June 26, 2017
Hydraulic fracturing has had limited impact on the rising number of earthquakes in Alberta, according to research led by a University of Alberta professor and geophysicist.
There has been substantial hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, in Alberta since the 1950s and the earthquake rate has increased slightly, but Mirko Van der Baan said Monday this is happening in very specific clusters.
Looking at the numbers, he said between 170,000 and 180,000 hydraulic fracturing treatments have taken place in Alberta and about 200 magnitude 3.0 or higher seismic events have been recorded since the 1970s.
“It is pretty clear immediately that not every single hydraulic fracturing treatment is going to cause an earthquake which is potentially damaging,” he said. “And so it’s important to understand why this very small percentage of treatment, where it’s a salt water disposal or hydraulic fracturing treatment, is anomalous.”
Van der Baan said the area of Fox Creek is a spot where seismic activity is occurring that never used to see any, attributed to fracking.
Fox Creek saw six earthquakes just under 4.0 magnitude in 2016, as well as a 4.93 magnitude seismic event in January — Alberta’s largest earthquake in a decade.
Van der Baan said the next step is to find out why seismic activity is being affected by some wells, to start focusing on mitigation strategies and recognize at early stages in fracking that specific wells have certain behaviours triggering seismic events.
For the study, the research team analyzed 30 to 50 years of earthquake data from six of the top hydrocarbon-producing states in the United States: North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. They also looked at the three top-producing Canadian provinces: Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
They found in some specific areas there was a correlation between changes in the production and the seismic activity rate, but just one state-wide correlation.
Only Oklahoma showed a strong correlation in the last five years between hydrocarbon production, as a result of saltwater disposal, and an increase in earthquakes.
Van der Baan said fracking is commonplace and will not be going away, so continued monitoring is important.
“Can we find diagnostic markers which are going to tell us if something is moving in the wrong direction?” he said.
The study, Human-Induced Seismicity and Large-Scale Hydrocarbon Production in the USA and Canada, appeared in the scientific journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, published by the American Geophysical Union.
Fracking rarely linked to rise in seismic tremors, U of A study suggests, Most fracking activity ‘perfectly safe,’ researcher concludes by CBC News, Jun 26, 2017
Hydraulic fracking has almost no connection to seismic tremors in North America [!!!!!!!!!!!!! Refer to the cross references below], except in one region, a study from the University of Alberta suggests.
Researchers examined more than 50 years of earthquake-rate statistics from the top oil-producing regions in the United States and Canada, and found little correlation between rising [key escape word] oil production and rates of seismic activity.
Fracking geophysicist Mirko Van der Baan
University of Alberta geophysicist Mirko Van der Baan has been researching the link between earthquakes and fracking. (University of Alberta)
The two-year study revealed only one exception. In Oklahoma, where seismic rates have changed dramatically in the last five years, researchers found a strong link between increased fracking activity and a rise in tremors in the region.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process that involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals underground at high pressure to fracture rock and release trapped natural gas.
“What we need to know first is where seismicity is changing as it relates to hydraulic fracturing or saltwater disposal,” said geophysicist Mirko Van Der Baan in a media release.
“The next question is why is it changing in some areas and not others. If we can understand why seismicity changes, then we can start thinking about mitigation strategies.”
… The study found no correlation between seismicity and increased oil and gas production [If you set your study up not to find, you won’t], despite eight- to 16-fold increases in production in some regions, challenging other studies which have found a definitive link.
However, in Oklahoma there was 85-per-cent correlation between the salt water disposal associated with fracking and earthquakes in the region, researchers found.
They also discovered that human-induced seismicity is less likely in areas that have fewer natural earthquakes.
‘Perfectly safe’
However, it appears other factors not yet fully understood must also be at play determining which fracking operations trigger earthquakes and which do not.
These other factors are likely related to local geology, local hydrology and the distribution of tectonic plates and fault lines.
“It’s not as simple as saying, ‘We do a hydraulic fracturing treatment, and therefore we are going to cause felt seismicity’,” said Van der Baan, director of the Microseismicity Industry Consortium which is funded by companies like Shell, Chevron and Husky Energy.
“It’s actually the opposite. Most of it is perfectly safe.”
Fracking ‘not going away’ [It is in more intelligent jurisdictions!]
While hydraulic fracturing has been in practice for decades, it has come under increased scrutiny in recent years over rising fears about its environmental impact.
Better research, including improved mapping of fault line systems and increased monitoring of injection rates, is essential in reducing the risks surrounding the much-maligned practice, said Van der Baan.
“Hydraulic fracturing is not going away. The important thing is that we need to find the balance between the economic impact and environmental sustainability of any industry,” he said.
Human-induced seismicity and large-scale hydrocarbon production in the USA and Canada was published in the June issue of scientific journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, published by the American Geophysical Union. [Emphasis added]
Fracking rarely causes earthquakes—except in Oklahoma: U of A research by Deborah Jaremko, June 26, 2017, JWNEnergy
It has become accepted that a recent surge in seismic activity in Oklahoma is related to fracking and wastewater injection as a result of increased oil and gas production, but new research from the University of Alberta says this doesn’t mean that earthquakes follow fracks everywhere.
In fact the team of researchers, led by U of A geophysicist Mirko Van der Baan, concluded that Oklahoma is the only region in the nine top hydrocarbon-producing places in the US and Canada where the trend exists.
Before 2009, Oklahoma might have experienced one to two low-magnitude earthquakes per year, but since 2014 the state has experienced one to two low-magnitude earthquakes per day, according to a report last week from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The EIA notes that most of these earthquakes are small, measuring in the three- to four- magnitude range on the moment magnitude scale; large enough to be felt by most people but not often causing structural damage.
Since 2014 there have been a few instances of higher magnitude earthquakes in Oklahoma (between magnitude 5 and 6) that have caused some damage, the EIA reports.
The U of A says the increase in seismic activity in Oklahoma has an 85 percent correlation to increased oil production, likely primarily due to saltwater disposal.
However, after studying the last thee to five decades of data (depending on data availability), Van der Baan’s team found that Oklahoma is an anomaly.
In a two-year study, researchers examined data from Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia, Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
“The other areas do not display state/province-wide correlations between increased seismicity and production, despite 8-16 fold increases in production in some states,” reads a paper by Van der Baan and U of A postdoctoral fellow Frank Calixto that appeared in the scientific journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. However, the researchers acknowledged that in various cases seismicity has locally increased.
“It’s not as simple as saying ‘we do a hydraulic fracturing treatment, and therefore we are going to cause felt seismicity.’ It’s actually the opposite. Most of it is perfectly safe,” Van der Baan said in a statement released by the U of A.
“What we need to know first is where seismicity is changing as it relates to hydraulic fracturing or saltwater disposal. The next question is why is it changing in some areas and not in others,” he said.
For example, the researchers said that while data shows that human-caused seismic activity is less likely in areas with lower existing seismic risk, the opposite is not necessarily true.
“If we can understand why seismicity changes, then we can start thinking about mitigation strategies.” [Emphasis added]
What’s Causing The Massive Increase In Earthquakes In Middle America? It’s Not Fracking by Steve St. Angelo, June 26, 2017, SRSrocco Report in Goldseek.com
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 one to two low magnitude earthquakes per day. While many people believe the huge increase in earthquake activity in Oklahoma is due to oil and gas fracking….. it isn’t.
… 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 into 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.
What the EIA is saying is that Oklahoma’s geology is conducive to increased seismic activity from deep wastewater injection compared to other regions in the United States. This graphic below explains how deep wastewater injection causes increased earthquake activity:
(illustration by Bryan Christie)
Basically, the water is acting like a fluid that is allowing the geology to slip… much like car tire hitting an oil slick on the surface of a road. While the EIA suggests that earthquake activity has declined in Oklahoma due to less drilling activity since the oil price fell since 2014, and manual reduction of deep wastewater injection to areas prone to higher magnitude earthquakes… some scientists believe the impacts could be felt for many years even if the injection stops.
I spoke to an oil geologist about this subject matter last year and he shared some interesting information. The oil industry used to inject wastewater in shallow wells because there wasn’t a lot of wastewater from conventional oil production. However, as shale oil and gas production came online over the past eight years, the amount of wastewater increased tremendously.
According to this LifeScience article on the amount of wastewater waste for each fracked well:
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a method of extracting oil and gas that requires between 3 million and 5 million gallons (11 million to 19 million liters) of water per “frack.” Afterward, the water is removed from the reservoir, but instead of treating the toxic wastewater, companies pump it back underground, into deep disposal wells.
Wastewater pumping continues at the wells, which inject more than 4 million barrels (477,000 cubic meters) of water into the ground every month.
“It’s pretty clear high-volume pumping is having an impact on the natural system,” said study co-author Geoff Abers, a geophysicist at Cornell University in New York. “Modern waste disposal wells can trigger earthquakes.”
Furthermore, many of the shallow wells that were being used to inject wastewater from conventional oil and gas wells were being filled and needed a new place to get rid of the wastewater. So, companies paid to get deep wastewater injection wells drilled so they could dump not only the shale oil and gas wastewater, but also that which came from older conventional oil and gas wells (some are the thousands of stripper wells producing 1-30 barrels per month).
Thus, the reason we didn’t have to deal with increased earthquake activity from conventional oil and gas production in the past, was due to the fact that most of it was injected in shallow wells….. far above the geological fault areas or zones.
While Oklahoma has not suffered from major earthquake damage, there has been a great deal of minor damage to homes, businesses and public buildings.
Again…. the full impact of deep wastewater injection may not be felt for many years. Even if the industry stops deep wastewater injection, the fluid is already down in the geology. Some geologists have stated that the worst may not be felt for many years… up until a decade.
Check back for new articles and updates at the SRSrocco Report. [Emphasis added]
[Refer also to:
2017 03 07: Pawnee Nation Sues 27 Oklahoma Oil Companies in Tribal Court Over Earthquake Damage
2017 03 01: Pennsylvania Regulator links earthquakes directly to fracking
2017 03 01: Man-Made Frac Quakes Could Threaten 3.5 Million Americans in 2017: USGS Report
2016 08 28: BC Hydro lying about fracking and dam safety?
2016 06 14: Alberta Energy Minister Margaret McCuaig-Boyd deflecting the known frac risks and harms? Says “fracking affects regions differently,” wants to “wait until we get the science going” before making any decisions even though the science on fracing is already in. [Is this the reason Mirko van der Baan and Frank J. Calixto did their deflecting dismissive silly study? How embarrassing it got published! Did the publishing of it bring in big funds from CAPP et al?]
2016 03 09: New news or old? Frac’ing, not waste injection, causing earthquakes in Western Canada. Diana Daunheimer calls out U of Calgary’s David Eaton: “So why are you getting the details on this issue so very wrong Mr. Eaton?” [Are the brilliant comments by Diana Daunheimer why the articles on this study by Mirko van der Baan and Frank J. Calixto are not allowing comments?]
2015 10 11: Cushing, Oklahoma: 4.5M earthquake ignores newly imposed frac quake prevention rules
2015 10 01: Since frac’ing, earthquakes now frequent near Fort St. John
2015 01 31: Fracing Record Breaking Quaking at Fox Creek Alberta?
2015 01 28: American Insurance Industry Adjusts to Earthquake Risk Caused by Fracking
2014 07 14: 7 Quakes Hit Oklahoma in Less Than a Day
2014 07 14: New Cornell Study: Because of fracing, Oklahoma now has three times more earthquakes than California; Number of potentially damaging earthquakes – magnitude 3.0 or larger – up more than 120 percent [Imagine what percentage up they’d be, if all quakes caused by fracking and or waste injection were studied!]
2014 02 28: Los Angeles City Council Passes LA ‘Fracking’ Ban in 10 – 0 vote!
2013 10 06: Seismologist from U of Texas Cliff Frohlich tells frac conference that frac’ing doesn’t cause earthquakes even though investigations prove that frac’ing does [Mirko van der Baan and Frank J. Calixto reference Frohlich works 10 times]
2013 08 19: Fracking Linked To 109 Earthquakes In Youngstown, Ohio
2013 08 08: Fears of quakes and flammable tap water hit Britain as fracking looms
2013 05 20: Groningen gas fields – the Dutch earthquake zone
2013 04 23: New Mexico Earthquakes Linked to Wastewater Injection
2013 03 31: Gas quakes anger Dutch farmers but relieve state coffers
2013 03 25: Quake Lawsuits Shake Up Shale Play Companies
“My department is concerned Cuadrilla failed to recognize the significance of the casing deformation experienced in the earth tremor triggered by fracking operations on 1 April 2011,” said then-Energy Minister Charles Hendry in a letter to Browne dated May 11, 2012, recently released via a Freedom of Information request. He added that the “failure discloses weaknesses in Cuadrilla’s performance as a licensee, which need to be addressed.”
2013 03 04: Arkansas Families Blame Fracking for Destructive Quakes
2012 12 05: Scientists link Colo., Okla. temblors to drilling activities
2012 11 28: New voluntary CAPP guidelines to monitor, respond to earthquakes caused by fracking
2012 11 20: What’s with all the Fracking Earthquakes
2012 11 08: Alberta researchers to record ground vibrations to look for fracking quakes
2012 11 07: Geologists Find East Coast Quakes Travel Farther
2012 11 06: Seismic event in southern Alberta: could it be an earthquake
2012 10 22: Deadly quake linked to water extraction, Fault weakened by years of pumping: Study
2012 10 02: Unusual Dallas Earthquakes Linked to Fracking, Expert Says
2012 09 07: Earthquake threats won’t stall fracking in B.C., industry officials say
2012 09 07: Fracking Earthquakes Shake Canada
2012 09 06: Fracking caused many low-level earthquakes in B.C., probe finds
Quakes recorded by Natural Resources Canada ranged from 2.2 to 3.8 on the Richter scale…. “The investigation has concluded that the events observed within remote and isolated areas of the Horn River Basin between 2009 and 2011 were caused by fluid injection during hydraulic fracturing in proximity to pre-existing faults,” the commission said in its report. It began its probe after learning of several “low level seismic events” recorded by Natural Resources Canada near the development areas. … No such activity was recorded in the region before 2009, the report noted.
Investigation of Observed Seismicity in the Horn River Basin
2012 09 06: B.C. oil and gas regulator links fracking to earthquakes
2012 09 06: Ohio, The shaky state of fracking
2012 08 30: Questerre CEO Michael Binnion admits fracking causes “very small earthquakes”
2012 08 12: Fracking Earthquakes: Injection practice linked to scores of tremors
2012 08 12: Christchurch New Zealand declared a fracking-free zone
2012 08 07: Blackpool rocked: how fracking triggers quakes
2012 07 24: What’s Up With Drilling and Earthquakes?
2012 07 07: North Texas rocked by 11 earthquakes in 40 days
The suit says that the companies’ “ultrahazardous” actions have made residents fear for their safety and caused the cost of earthquake insurance to skyrocket. … Scientists are investigating whether other earthquakes in Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas are linked to drilling activities such as waste injection. Seismologists at the U.S. Geological Survey have suggested that some of those quakes, along with the Arkansas swarm, are part of a “remarkable” increase in the number of earthquakes in the middle of the country that is “almost certainly man-made” and likely linked to oil and gas operations (EnergyWire, March 29).
2012 04 17: Fracking for oil triggers manmade earthquakes, studies confirm
2012 04 06: Middle America Is Experiencing a Massive Increase in 3.0+ Earthquakes
2011 11 05: Fracking process causing earthquakes noticeable kilometres away
2011 11 02: Okla. quakes associated with fracking, Hydraulic fracturing may be in for a bumpy ride
2011 10 15: Drilling did cause ‘earthquake’
2011 09 29: B.C. probes possible fracking, earthquake link
2011 08 23: Earthquakes and gas drilling, New Mexico
2011 07 26: Quakes Push Arkansas to Limit Gas-Waste Wells
2011 06 10: Frac Attack: Burning Water And Earthquakes
2011 06 09: Ark. couple files suit, blaming recent rash of earthquakes on companies’ injection wells
2011 04 20: Shutdown of wells extended in Arkansas quake study
2011 03 11: Does Gas Fracking cause Earthquakes?
The U.S. Geological Survey reported seven quakes measuring 1.8 in magnitude or greater in the past three weeks. The epicenters of the quakes were at different depths – another indication that they are not fault-based and instead are caused by the drilling, Al-Shukri said. …
Al-Shukri doesn’t expect the earthquakes to be greater than 3.5 in magnitude.
2005 07 14: New Mexico Quakes shake Vermejo Park gas field — again
Some seismologists believe the coalbed methane drilling on Vermejo Park could be the cause of occasional earthquakes that shake the mineral-rich Ratón Basin — a theory the gas industry vehemently disputes.
2005 05 05: Coalbed methane drilling could be cause of quake
Many quakes in the region have been clustered around coalbed methane development, said Alan Sanford, New Mexico Tech emeritus professor of seismology. …“It is my understanding that they are injecting fluids into the ground which can generate earthquakes,” Aster said. Coalbed methane drilling on the Vermejo Park Ranch involves fracturing an underground coal seam to allow methane to escape to the surface. … “CBM development is like playing Russian roulette,”
2000 04 01: Seismicity in the Oil Field
Much of this article originally appeared in the Schlumberger Russian version of the Oilfield Review, Neftegasovoye Obozreniye 5, no.1 (Spring 2000): 4:15. Results in this article were based on data obtained by the local seismic network of Stock Joint Company “Tatneft.” The authors thanks I.A. Iskhakove, head of the TNGF seismic crew and K.M. Mirzoev, chief of the Tatarstan seismic survey, who provided the catalogue of seismice events and the produced and injected fluid volumes data. The support from “Tafneft” and the Russion Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR project #98-05-64547) is gratefully acknowledged.
The gas field was discovered in 1956 and production began in 1962. Over the next 14 years, roughly 600×106 m3 of water, or 106 ton per km2, were injected. …
Beginning in 1976, a series of large earthquakes was recorded. The first significant earthquake occurred on April 8, 1976 at a distance of 20 km [12 miles] from the Gazli gasfield boundary. The earthquake magnitude measured 6.8. Just 39 days later, on May 17, 1976, another severe earthquake occurred 27 km [17 miles] to the west of the first one. The magnitude of the second earthquake was 7.3.
Eight years later, on March 20, 1984, a third earthquake occurred 15 km [9miles] to the west of the second earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.2. … Aftershocks occurred in a volume surrounding the three hypocentres. These earthquakes are the strongest of all the known earthquakes in the plain of Central Asia. …
There was no clear relationship between the location of the earthquake hypocenters and any previously known active tectonic structures.
Closer investigation showed that the earthquakes had created new faults.
… In all these cases, the result of human interference was to change the state of stress in the surrounding volume of earth. If the stress change is big enough, it can cause an earthquake, either by fracturing the rock mass—in the case of mining or underground explosions—or by causing rock to slip along existing zones of weakness.
The situation in regions of hydrocarbon recovery is not always well understood: in some places, extraction of fluid induces seismicity; in others, injection induces seismicity.
… Even minor actions can trigger strong seismicity.
… The amassed data indicate that the Gazli earthquakes were triggered by the exploitation of the gas field. …
In regions of high tectonic potential energy, hydrocarbon production can cause severe increases in seismic activity and trigger strong earthquakes, as in Gazli, Uzbekistan.
In regions of lower tectonic stress, earthquakes of that magnitude are less likely, but relatively weak earthquakes could occur and damage surface structures.
1971 04 03: Ground Rupture in the Baldwin Hills
Experience in the Baldwin Hills suggests that, although fluid injection operations may be carried out for beneficial purposes, the effects of such injection on the geologic fabric can be serious and far-reaching.