14 DAY TRIAL // As if environmentalists needed any more reasons to lash out at the oil and gas industry, a study published in the journal Seismological Research Letters earlier this week says that, in 2013 alone, fracking triggered hundreds of earthquakes in Ohio, US.
Admittedly, neither of these earthquakes was strong enough to be felt by the general public. Still, it appears that they all occurred in an area where seismic activity had never before been documented. To some people, this piece of information might just be proof enough that fracking is bad for the planet.
Crash course in hydraulic fracturing
For those not familiar with this method of accessing underground oil and gas reserves, it need be said that hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking, boils down to injecting massive amounts of water containing sand and all sorts of chemicals into the ground.
The water pumped in the underground during hydraulic fracturing activities is high pressure, which means that it forces rocks out of their usual place, essentially creating cracks. By breaking apart the ground, fracking allows easy access to gas and oil reserves.
While companies in the oil and gas industry argue that hydraulic fracturing does not in any way constitute a threat to natural ecosystems or the general public, environmentalists argue that this practice can both pollute underground water sources and cause earthquakes to happen.
The 2013 Ohio earthquakes
Writing in the journal Seismological Research Letters, researchers with the Seismological Society of America explain that, in the year 2013 alone, nearly 400 earthquakes were documented in Harrison County, Ohio, Science Daily informs.
Of these, the strongest 10 had a magnitude ranging from 1.7 to 2.2. However, the general public failed to take notice of either one of them, the scientists behind this research project go on to explain. Within a 39-hour period on October 1 and 2, as many as 190 small earthquakes occurred in this part of the US.
Like the other ones argued to have been caused by fracking, these shakes were linked to a previously unmapped east-west fault located just below three horizontal gas wells, at a depth of about 2 miles (approximately 3.2 kilometers).
Having analyzed the exact location where these earthquakes occurred, the motion that they produced and their timing, the Seismological Society of America specialists concluded that the nearly 400 shakes that happened in Harrison County, Ohio, in 2013 had all been caused by fracking activities in the area.
In light of these findings, the scientists recommend that, before the oil and gas industries are granted permission to get busy exploring new reserves in previously unexploited areas, efforts be made to better understand how such activities can influence seismic activity in an area.
“Hydraulic fracturing has the potential to trigger earthquakes, and in this case, small ones that could not be felt,” researcher Paul Friberg said in a statement. “As hydraulic fracturing operations explore new regions, more seismic monitoring will be needed since many faults remain unmapped,” he added.