7 As a Matter of Frack- Does Fracking Cause Earthquakes?

• 1. Choose 4 states where fracking has occurred (OK, PA, ND, WY)

  2. Look at when their first instance of fracking occurred and write down the year.

  3. Look at their amount of earthquakes before and after the year ( 5 years before and after)

  4. Find the percent increased(or decreased)

  5. Graph the results to show the correlation between fracking and earthquakes

  6. Design and make model of how fracking works.

Does Fracking Cause Earthquakes?

For my science fair project this year I decided to determine whether or not fracking causes earthquakes. My hypothesis was that fracking does cause earthquakes because in order to frack you have drill into the ground which could cause shifting in the tectonic plates. I decided to do this project because I had noticed that places that hadn’t been getting many earthquakes before were getting a lot now and I wondered why this was. I looked to my mom for an answer and she told me about how it could hydraulic fracturing.

For this project I had to follow a certain schedule or procedure to keep my work in order. First, I had to pick four states where fracking has occurred. Then, I had to find out when most fracking started. After that, I had to go to the U.S. National Earthquake Tracker and find out how many earthquakes took place, in that area, 12 years before and after 2005, the year most states started fracking. Finally, I analyzed the data.

The data showed that the average amount of earthquakes before fracking was a lot lower than the amount after fracking. The average amount of Earthquakes in Oklahoma, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming from 1983 to 2005 was 19 earthquakes per state. The amount of earthquakes in Oklahoma, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming from 2005 to 2017 was 1079 per state.

In conclusion, my hypothesis was right because the amount earthquakes from before 2005 increased by 5,578.9% once fracking was introduced into most of the states. This could have been improved on by determining the results of other states or by factoring in the variables of being near the tectonic plates. I hope to expand on this project and learn more about this topic and the environment in general.

Does Fracking Cause Earthquakes?

I think that fracking could cause earthquakes because it splits the ground in a certain area which could shift the plates of the area.