Fault Lines In New York (Otsego County)

Fracking Earthquakes: Injection practice linked to scores of tremors

Earthquakes triggered by fluids injected deep underground, such as during the controversial practice of fracking, may be more common than previously thought, a new study suggests. 

Fluid injections into Earth are not uncommon. For instance, in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, water, sand and other materials are injected under high pressure into a well to fracture rock, opening fissures that help natural gas flow out more freely. Fluid-injection operations are also used to help get power from geothermal energy, and to dispose of waste. 

However, researchers have long known that fluid-injection operations can trigger earthquakes. For instance, in 2006 one geothermal energy site triggered four earthquakes in Basel, Switzerland, ranging from 3.1 to 3.4 on the Richter scale. Fracking also appears linked with Oklahoma's strongest recorded quake in 2011, as well as a spate of more than 180 minor tremors in Texas between Oct. 30, 2008, and May 31, 2009. 

It remains unclear why some injection wells set off earthquakes whereas others do not. To find out, seismologist Cliff Frohlich at the University of Texas at Austin analyzed seismic activity in the Barnett Shale of northern Texas between November 2009 and September 2011 and compared the properties of injection wells located near quake epicenters. He relied on mobile seismometers deployed as part of the EarthScope USArray program over an approximately 23,000-square-mile area. 

Frohlich identified the epicenters for 67 earthquakes — more than eight times as many as reported by the National Earthquake Information Center — with magnitudes of 3.0 or less. Most were located within a few miles of one or more injection wells, suggesting injection-triggered quakes might be more common than thought. 

"We found a lot of events that weren't getting reported," Frohlich told LiveScience. 

A third of the quakes clustered into eight geographic regions. All of the wells nearest the epicenters within these areas reported high rates of injection exceeding 150,000 barrels (17.6 million liters) of water per month. 

Still, Frohlich noted the Barnett Shale hosts more than 100 wells with similar injection rates that experienced no nearby earthquakes during the time he studied them. He suggests that fluid injection may trigger earthquakes only if fluids reach and relieve friction on a nearby fault. (Source: livescience.com)

Story Date: August 11, 2012

http://www.inlandnewstoday.com/story.php?s=25286 

HydrofrackFacts- Earthquakes

USGS scientist:

‘We’re only starting to learn’ about fracking, fluid injection, earthquakes

By David O. Williams | 08.27.11 | 10:41 am

A U.S. Geological Survey scientist Friday said large earthquakes in unusual places like Virginia and southern Colorado earlier this week aren’t typically associated with the controversial natural gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing.

“That process can cause very small earthquakes, but the fracking process doesn’t really, we think, induce large earthquakes,” USGS scientist Mike Blanpied said on a video chat. “The thing that can induce larger earthquakes is the high-pressure waste fluid injection that’s done in some places.”

Blanpied was answering questions from the public in the wake of Tuesday’s 5.8-magnitude earthquake in Louisa County, Va., and Monday’s 5.3-magnitude earthquake in Las Animas County, Colo.

Questions have been raised about the possible connection between earthquake swarms and fracking – a process in which water, sand and often undisclosed chemicals are injected under high pressure deep into natural gas wells to fracture tight geological formations and free up more gas. Fracking occurs in about 90 percent of all natural gas wells in the United States.

The fluids are often brought back up and stored on the surface for re-use and later disposed of in separate deep-injection wells. And it’s those disposal wells that in the past have prompted investigations by the USGS after rare earthquake swarms in southern Colorado, where in 2001 officials said they could “not rule out the possibility” the wells caused the quakes.

Tuesday’s Virginia earthquake, felt in Washington, D.C., and farther north along the East Coast, was not in a heavy gas-drilling area but is fairly close to the border of West Virginia, a state with major coal-bed methane reserves and a great deal of drilling and mining activity.

“However, as far as we’re aware, there’s not really the mining or the fluid injection processes going on in Virginia that would have connected this earthquake with anything like that,” Blanpied said Friday. “Just to be clear, the connection between fracking and fluid injection and earthquakes is an area of active research and really we’re only starting to learn about how those things are connected.”

Last month, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission identified four disposal wells it says need to be shut down in the wake of earthquake swarms in that state last spring. The state also ordered a moratorium on new disposal wells in the area.

The USGS cites a Colorado case in the 1960s as the most famous example of deep-injection wells causing an earthquake.

“The largest and most widely known resulted from fluid injection at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, Colo.,” the USGS states. “In 1967, an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 followed a series of smaller earthquakes. Injection had been discontinued at the site in the previous year once the link between the fluid injection and the earlier series of earthquakes was established.”

The U.S. Army had been disposing of toxic fluids at depths of nearly 12,000 feet but had to discontinue the process after the quakes.

Some gas-drilling proponents say the concern about fracking, fluid disposal and earthquakes is yet another attempt by the environmental community to sound unwarranted alarms about the industry.

Although she was speaking before the Colorado and Virginia quakes and not addressing those specific concerns, Colorado Oil and Gas Association President and CEO Tisha Schuller recently told an energy conference in Aspen that public concern about fracking — blasted by some on the Western Slope for potentially contaminating groundwater supplies — is akin to skepticism by others about climate change.

“In the same way that the climate movement has to deal with this unimaginable conflict about people not believing in science, we have to do that in the conversation about hydraulic fracturing,” Schuller said, according to the Aspen Daily News. “And the nature of the conversation is as important as the information … The public must be willing to hear that it’s safe when it’s demonstrated.”

Editor’s note: Colorado Independent Western Slope environment and energy reporter David O. Williams discussed this topic with guest host David Sirota on the nationally syndicated Randi Rhodes radio show on Thursday.

Follow David O. Williams on Twitter.

Arkansas

quakes decline since hydrofracking injection wells were closed

Published: Monday, March 14, 2011, 7:08 PM Updated: Monday, March 14, 2011, 7:08 PM

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The number and strength of earthquakes in central Arkansas have noticeably dropped since the shutdown of two injection wells in the area, although a state researcher says it’s too early to draw any conclusions.

“We have definitely noticed a reduction in the number of earthquakes, especially the larger ones,“ said Scott Ausbrooks, geohazards supervisor for the Arkansas Geological Survey. “It’s definitely worth noting.“

The Center for Earthquake Research and Information recorded around 100 earthquakes in the seven days preceding the shutdown earlier this month, including the largest quake to hit the state in 35 years — a magnitude 4.7 on Feb. 27. A dozen of the quakes had magnitudes greater than 3.0. In the days since the shutdown, there have been around 60 recorded quakes, with only one higher than a magnitude 3.0. The majority were between magnitudes 1.2 and 2.8.

The two injection wells are used to dispose of wastewater from natural-gas production. One is owned by Chesapeake Energy, and the other by Clarita Operating. They agreed March 4 to temporarily cease injection operations at the request of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission.

The commission said preliminary studies showed evidence potentially linking injection activities with nearly 1,000 quakes in the region over the past six months.

But Ausbrooks said it’s too soon to tell if the decline in quakes is directly related to the injection well closures, adding that the drop could just be a normal low period of the swarm cycle. “Either way, I wouldn’t expect (the earthquakes) to quit immediately,“ he said. “If there is a relationship, the seismic activity could go on for weeks, months or even years.“

Chesapeake Energy has said it does not believe there is a connection between the injection wells and the area’s seismic activity.

A six-month moratorium on new injection wells in the area took effect in January to allow time to determine what relationship, if any, there is between the wells and the earthquakes.

The Fayetteville Shale, an organically-rich rock formation underlying the region, is a major source of natural gas in Arkansas. Drillers free up the gas by using hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,“ which requires injecting pressurized water to create fractures deep in the ground. The two injection wells at issue dispose of “frack“ water when it can no longer be re-used by injecting it into the ground.

The state’s Oil and Gas Commission will reconsider the issue at a meeting March 29 when both sides will get to testify.

Drilling did cause ‘earthquake’

Published on Saturday 15 October 2011 02:44

CONTROVERSIAL gas drilling DID cause Fylde coast earthquakes.

And now energy chiefs have sent a stark warning to shale gas company

Cuadrilla Resources – stop the tremors or we will shut you down.

It comes as the company this week held urgent talks with the

Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to consider a report

into the risk of earthquakes associated with fracking – the process

used to extract shale gas from deep beneath the Fylde coast.

The meetings followed the British Geological Survey’s (BGS) conclusion

two recent earth tremors felt nearby were most likely to have been

caused by fracking.

The BGS said the correlations between the earthquakes and the time of

fracking operations and the proximity of the quakes to the site, all

pointed towards the earthquakes being a result of the fracking

process.

Seismologist Brian Baptie added: “These are still very small

earthquakes, even by UK standards and won’t cause any damage, if

fracking continued I couldn’t see the tremors getting much bigger.

“But it is obviously a concern for local residents and I’m sure the

report commissioned by Cuadrilla will be greeted with interest.”

Cuadrilla has came under fire from activists for its drilling

technique, which involves pumping high volumes of water and sand into

drill holes to crack the rocks so gas can be extracted

The company commissioned a report following the tremors earlier this year.

Soon after the quakes were feltthe firm halted the fracking process

after admitting the low magnitude tremors felt in Poulton in April and

May, close to Cuadrilla’s Singleton site could be linked to them.

And experts said Cuadrilla’s operations could be shut down permanently

if proposed methods to reduce the risk of earthquakes fail.

Toni Harvey, a senior geoscientist at the Department of Energy and

Climate Change (DECC) said: “If we allow fracking to continue and

their mitigation didn’t work, then we would shut them down again,

without a doubt.

“There is a lot of concern in the media and from ministers about public

safety.”

“DECC has requested a detailed report from Cuadrilla, which we

understand they are close to finalising. When the report is received,

it will be carefully considered, with input from British Geological

Survey and other experts.

“We will also be discussing the report with other regulators before

any decision is made on resuming hydraulic fracturing operations for

shale gas.”

Last month Cuadrilla, the first company to explore for shale gas in

the UK, announced the Fylde coast holds a total potential resource of

200 trillion cubic feet of gas.

It estimated the discovery – between Blackpool and Southport –could be

worth £6bn to the UK economy and create 1,700 jobs locally.

However protesters are campaigning to stop the drilling and

anti-fracking group, Frack Off - London, rallied outside the DECC

headquarters on Thursday as Cuadrilla presented their study.

And the chairman of the Blackpool and Fylde Green Party Philip

Mitchell today called on the Government to halt all UK hydraulic

fracturing industry activity until there had been a thorough and

robust evaluation of the risks related to future activity.

He said: “Any suggestion of an acceptable level of earthquakes caused

by fracking should be rejected.

“The Government must realise it must stop treating our communities

like guinea pigs and accept these techniques carry unacceptable risks

to the British public.

“Ministers must stop the industry activity at least until parliament

and the public can be guided by a full and robust appraisal of the

total risk to the themselves and to the environment.”

Mark Miller, CEO of Cuadrilla Resources, said: “We met with officials

from DECC and their technical advisors and had a useful, in-depth

working session on the initial findings of the report.

“There is some considerable work still to do and we absolutely share

with DECC the need to have the complex issues involved addressed dealt

with satisfactorily.”

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/local/drilling_did_cause_earthquake_1_3876146

Does God want fracking in Ohio?

>> By Ken Paulman • 9/23/2011 •

Here in Minnesota, we’ve heard the argument that coal was placed in the earth by God for us to use. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich, at his energy summit this week, is the latest to proclaim the divine providence of fossil fuel resources.

In an address at the summit at Ohio State University, Gov. Kasich enthusiastically describes the economic potential of the Marcellus and Utica shale formations, exploration of which Chesapeake Energy estimates could create more than 200,000 jobs over four years:

“The Lord may have placed deposits in the eastern part of this state … that can bring great prosperity to people who don’t have much.”

The governor goes on to point out that one out of every four children in Ohio lives in poverty, and offers an image of a child shivering at a school bus stop in a “paper thin coat.” Exploration of the shale gas reserves “can lift people and lift families and provide jobs,” and “that in and of itself is worth it.”

While some environmentalists oppose hydraulic fracturing at all cost, the fact is, we need natural gas, at least for the short-term. If it can be extracted safely, and can provide jobs for people who desperately need them, well, that’s a hard thing to argue against.

So maybe the Lord is on to something.

But what about wind and solar power? Was the sun also put in the sky by God to create job opportunities in Ohio?

“Oh, they’re all trying to get me to say we don’t need renewables … of course we need solar and of course we need wind … but we’ve got to be realistic about it,” the governor says. Solar power is fine for places like California and Nevada, he explains, but not so much for cloudy Ohio.

“But,” Kasich says, “we don’t want to shut these advanced ideas out, because you don’t know where they’re going to lead.” Many Ohioans were “born to make things,” so “why not make parts for solar and wind and geothermal, and sell them all over the world.”

Just so we’re clear, then: Energy that comes from the ground? God. Energy that comes from the sky? Not God (or at least not necessarily God).

To be fair to Gov. Kasich, this week’s summit was an effort to bring together a wide range of interests to try to forge ahead with an energy policy based on the public interest. Whether or not the effort is successful, that’s a bold undertaking that shows real leadership.

Also, it’s not my intention to criticize anyone’s religious beliefs. But mixing faith with public policy can bring up some uncomfortable question.

Mine is: How does Gov. Kasich, or anyone else for that matter, determine which naturally-occurring energy resources are part of God’s master plan, and which aren’t?

Feel free to offer up your own theories…

http://www.midwestenergynews.com/2011/09/23/does-god-want-fracking-in-ohio/

‘Fracking’ wastewater floods Ohio

By Spencer Hunt

The Columbus DispatchSunday September 25, 2011 7:48 AM

CAMBRIDGE, Ohio — The long line of tanker trucks waiting to unload at the Devco No. 1 injection well shows that business is good at the underground-disposal site.

When energy companies need to get rid of the millions of barrels of brine — the salty, chemical-laced wastewater that comes out of shale-gas wells — they bring most of it to places like this.

At the Devco well, the brine is injected 8,900 feet below ground, where it is expected to stay forever.

The process has been used for decades in Ohio to dispose of wastewater from fractured and traditional gas and oil wells.

These days, more than half of the brine coming to Ohio injection wells is from the shale-gas fields in Pennsylvania, where drilling has been under way for several years. The disposal industry is expected to grow as Ohio’s shale is exploited.

After rejecting proposals to pass brine through city sewage-treatment plants and dump the wastewater into streams, Ohio officials decided that the state’s 170 injection wells should be the primary disposal method.

“We think they got it right,” said Tom Stewart, vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association. “Put it back where it came from, or deeper.”

It’s a solution that doesn’t sit well with environmental advocates, who say there are too many questions about the chemicals in the wastewater and the amount that will be pumped underground.

Teresa Mills, director of the Buckeye Environmental Network, said she fears that brine will contaminate groundwater, if it doesn’t already.

“First of all, we don’t know all the chemicals that are going down there,” Mills said. “It’s out-of-sight, out-of-mind, and nobody follows it once it’s down.”

Ohio officials say underground injection is safe. The groundwater Ohioans tap with drinking-water wells is protected, they say, by multiple layers of rock as well as cement and steel that surround the well shafts.

“We have not had any subsurface contamination of groundwater since we took over the program in 1983,” said Tom Tomastik, chief of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ disposal-well program.

Records that extend back to 1978 show that 161.9 million barrels of waste from oil and gas fields have been injected into these wells.

Roughly 55 percent of the brine injected into Ohio wells comes from “out of district,” and probably from Pennsylvania, where officials recently banned the dumping of brine in that state’s streams.

David Hill, who owns the Devco well and is president of Byesville-based oil and gas company David R. Hill Inc., said it’s common to see trucks with Pennsylvania plates.

“We have to get rid of this water responsibly,” he said.

State inspectors have issued 378 violations at injection wells since 2001 for problems, including spills, leaking tanks and pipes, and wastewater pooled within spill-prevention areas.

“We’ve done over 1,000 investigations since the early ’80s,” Tomastik said. “Most of the contamination was surface contamination.”

As the number of shale-gas wells increases in Ohio and Pennsylvania, so will the disposal wells. Tomastik said he has approved permits for 15 wells to be drilled over the next two years.

“I’ve got another two (permit requests) sitting on my desk,” he said.

shunt@dispatch.com

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/09/25/fracking-wastewater-floods-ohio.html

What’s underlying cause of recent Valley quakes?

Published: Sat, October 1, 2011 @ 12:10 a.m. 

Experts point to various factors in explaining 6 temblors in 61/2 months

By Karl Henkel

khenkel@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Thursday night’s earthquake sent shock waves through most of Mahoning County.

The quake wasn’t strong enough to create any damage, but it likely felt a lot stronger than a regular magnitude-2.5 rumble, said Michael Hansen, senior geologist at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

That’s because rocks underneath the ground of river valley areas are mostly made up of unconsolidated sediments that amplify ground movement.

“That makes it feel higher intensity,” Hansen said.

That could explain the booming and crashing noises heard by some throughout the Valley.

And although the initial magnitude registered a 2.5, Hansen said follow-up data could revise that number slightly higher.

“It may be 2.6 or a little bigger than 2.6, but not by much,” he said.

Geologists have recorded earthquakes with epicenters in Mahoning County just six times — and all happened in the past 61/2 months.

All have occurred west of the Mahoning River, in close proximity to Salt Springs Road.

The six earthquakes registered magnitudes ranging from 2.2 to 2.6.

According to the Mercalli Intensity Scale, earthquakes between magnitudes 2.0 and 3.0 are felt by a few people, especially those on upper floors.

But why, after a lifetime with no earthquakes centered in Mahoning County, is the area averaging a quake per month?

Experts say there are a few reasons.

“From time to time, earthquakes pop up in Ohio in places where we’ve never had them before,” Hansen said.

One such instance, Hansen said, was in Mentor, near Lake Erie, in 2006.

That region had 14 earthquakes that year and has experienced additional quakes sporadically since.

The source of the Mahoning County quakes are a buried fault of basement rocks, which Hansen estimated could be 800 million to 1 billion years old.

Jeffrey Dick, Youngstown State University Geology Department chairman, said small earthquakes on ancient fault lines aren’t unique, but what’s unusual in Mahoning County is the frequency.

Other geologic movement could be the cause of the Valley’s recent quakes.

“You can get a triggering effect from a large event,” Hansen said, referencing the magnitude-5.8 earthquake registered in Virginia on Aug. 23. “But we had some before that earthquake, so I don’t think that necessarily correlates.”

Hansen also said that the North American Plate is under constant pressure and has “zones of weakness.”

Another outside source has been highly debated within the geology field.

It’s called fracking, a process where water and chemicals are blasted into rocks thousands of feet below the ground to unlock natural oil and gas.

In Ohio and Pennsylvania, companies such as Chesapeake Energy Corp. have begun drilling for natural oil and gas in the Marcellus and Utica shales.

In Harrison County, Chesapeake has drilled one horizontal well 6,418 feet below ground levels, more than one mile deep. Ohio Buckeye Energy has begun fracturing rock in Milton.

Though the Mahoning County earthquakes had a focus more than three miles deep, some geologists, including Michael Blanpied, associate coordinator for the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, said fracking can lead to tremors.

“That process can cause very small earthquakes,” Blanpied said in video chat on the USGS website after the Virginia quake.

Dick, however, isn’t so sure.

“I think that would be pure speculation, especially when not much fracking has occurred in Ohio,” he said.

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/oct/01/what8217s-underlying-cause-of-recent-val/