A little frac quake refresher:
In the HRB [Horn River Basin, NE BC Canada], the seismic response to HF [Hydraulic Fracturing] injection clearly showed variable time lags. Examining the data after January 2008, when sustained HF operations were carried out, suggests that it can take from days to as much as four months for the geologic system to respond with significant seismic events as predicted by the moment-volume relationship (Figure 6). Based on the HRB data set, it is unclear what factors and physical mechanisms control the time lag.
… Variable time lags are observed between intense HF and the occurrence of a significant local earthquake.
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?”
USGS links Oklahoma’s 5.1M (third largest) earthquake to oil-field disposal wells more than 7 miles away
It’s Official: Kansas’ Biggest Earthquake, 4.9M in 2014, Caused by Frac Wastewater Injection
Insurer Lloyd’s Wins Right to Fight New Dominion Lawsuit in N.Y. Over Oklahoma Quake Coverage; Lloyds refusing to pay damages claiming water and chemicals injected for fracing doesn’t qualify as pollution
AER orders Vesta Energy to suspend frac operations at well site linked to 4.6M earthquake in Central Alberta
4.6M earthquake, 1 km in depth, most powerful yet in central Alberta, hits SW of Red Deer, cracks walls in homes, knocks power out to thousands. Vesta Energy reports quake to AER, shuts down frac’ing. AER investigating. Geological Survey of Canada says looks like fra’cing didn’t do it.
Frac’ing creates job jobs jobs? Frac Quake Shaker Repsol laying off 30 per cent of Canadian staff
Oklahoma’s boasted frac quake mitigation failing, badly! More homes damaged by two 4.2M quakes Sunday NE of Enid; Court coddling oil companies causing quakes, leaving people plaintiffs dangling
Texas, New Study: Fracking directly linked to increase in earthquakes
Fox Creek, Alberta Frac Quakes start up again; New Study by Standford Scientists: Small earthquakes at frac sites may be early indicators of bigger quakes to come; Surprising Finding: Arkansas earthquakes mostly caused by hydraulic fracturing, only some by wastewater injection, None caused by trucks
Yukon, Oklahoma: Fracking again directly causing earthquakes
Oklahoma seismologist, Austin Holland, scolded by fracked academia (the dean!) for linking earthquake swarms to powerful oil and gas industry
Another Study! Federal and provincial scientists, BC OGC and AER Prove hydraulic fracturing directly caused (August 17, 2015) 4.6M frac quake in NE BC
Pennsylvania Regulator links earthquakes directly to fracking
First research links Californian quakes to oil operations. Is that why it took so many decades for such research to be done?
Pawnee Oklahoma’s 5.8M earthquake caused river to rise. Not just waste injection causing earthquakes in Oklahoma, frac’ing causing them too, like in BC & Alberta
Lancashire UK: More frac failures plague Cuadrilla, company tries but fails to seal the well and caused 57 earthquakes. How much methane is migrating into aquifers and homes? “We have little confidence in Cuadrilla’s technical abilities….”
Lancashire fracking: 1.6 magnitude tremor halts work by BBC News, Aug 22, 2019
Seismic activity with a magnitude of 1.55 was detected at the Preston New Road site near Blackpool on Wednesday night, Cuadrilla said. Previously, the largest tremor recorded at Little Plumpton was 1.5. …
The British Geological Survey measured the tremor as 1.6.
Any tremor measuring 0.5 or above means fracking must be temporarily stopped while tests are carried out.
Cuadrilla said it had suspended activity for 18 hours after the “small” tremor, and was monitoring the site. It said the shale gas well was intact. …
Cuadrilla suspends Lancashire fracking after biggest tremor yet by Nathalie Thomas, Aug 22, 2109, Financial Times
Fracking suspended in Blackpool after biggest earthquake yet Aug 22, 2019, The Independent
… The tremor was detected at 8.46pm on Wednesday, which was after the company had finished its fracking operations for the day.
The shutdown came less than one week after the energy firm started fracking a new well on the site after closing down the first one following a string of tremors.
… While smaller quakes are not generally felt at the surface, there are concerns repeated events will cause damage to infrastructure, and that they could lead to large tremors that compromise the fracking borehole and cause leaks.
A spokesperson for Frack Free Lancashire said: “We deplore Cuadrilla’s attempts to downplay and trivialise these quakes by making facile comparisons with milkshakes and bags of shopping being dropped.
“This is a serious issue and we know that seismic activity at similar levels deformed the well bore at Preese Hall, which Cuadrilla failed to report to the relevant authorities for six months.”
Cuadrilla halts work after UK’s biggest fracking tremor, Company says most residents will not have felt microseismic event at Lancashire site by Jillian Ambrose, Aug 22, 2019, The Guardian
Cuadrilla was forced to halt fracking at its shale gas site near Blackpool in Lancashire on Wednesday night after triggering the largest tremor recorded at the location.
The tremor closed down operations at the Preston New Road site shortly after it was detected at 8.46pm.
The shutdown comes less than a week after Cuadrilla started fracking its second well on the site after abandoning the first well following multiple shutdowns because of tremors.
The fracking firm said the “microseismic event” measured 1.55ML on the Richter scale, which it likened to “a large bag of shopping dropping to the floor”.
The tremor is higher than the previous record quake, which measured 1.5ML at Little Plumpton in December 2018, and easily breaches the government’s 0.5ML limit on seismic activity.
A company spokesman said: “Most local people will not have felt it due to its small size.”
Jamie Peters, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said even small vibrations at ground level can be a sign of far more damaging impacts deep underground.
“It’s obvious that fracking can’t be done without triggering earthquakes. This latest quake is a sign that Cuadrilla just can’t stick within the regulations they agreed,” he said.
Lee Rowley, a Conservative MP for North East Derbyshire, said: “The industry signed up to the seismic regulations years ago and told us they could operate within the limits. This just proves again that fracking isn’t going to work in the UK and the companies should give up flogging a dead horse.”
… “Minor movements of this level are to be expected and are way below anything that can cause harm or damage to anyone or their property,” the spokesman said.
Ministers hinted last week that they are considering a review of the system after lending support to Cuadrilla’s campaign.
A government spokesman said: “Shale gas could be an important new domestic energy source, reducing the level of gas imports while delivering broad economic benefits, including through the creation of well-paid, quality jobs.” [Note the govt doesn’t say “will be.” Looks like even the govt is seeing industry’s greedy automation slashing jobs to increase private profit]
Doubts have been cast about the claims because of recent research from the University of Nottingham, which found that the UK’s shale gas reserves may deliver only a fraction of the gas promised by fracking firms and government ministers. [as has been proven in all frac fields so far around the world]
The government responded to the study by saying that exploration is necessary to understand whether shale is safe and economic.
“The government is supportive of shale gas exploration in order to understand the size of the opportunity here in the UK,” a spokesman said.
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Jobs?