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USGS Confirms Oklahoma Quakes Are Due To Fracking

USGS Confirms Oklahoma Quakes Are Due To Fracking

The debate about the cause of the exponential rise in the frequency of earthquakes in Oklahoma has really heated up in the last year, but as KFOR4 reports, The United States Geological Survey (USGS) appears to have put any doubt firmly to rest. In a strongly-worded press release, the USGS states, “…Large areas of the United States that used to experience few or no earthquakes have, in recent years, experienced a remarkable increase in earthquake activity.. This rise in seismic activity, especially in the central United States, is not the result of natural processes... Instead, the increased seismicity is due to fluid injection associated with new technologies that enable the extraction of oil and gas from previously unproductive reservoirs.” For some, that could end the debate; but Kim Hatfield, with the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, is not so sure, “I don’t think it’s particularly helpful because basically, it says we’ve come to a conclusion, but we don’t have the science to back it up.”

Full USGS Statement: Coping with Earthquakes Induced by Fluid Injection

A paper published today in Science provides a case for increasing transparency and data collection to enable strategies for mitigating the effects of human-induced earthquakes caused by wastewater injection associated with oil and gas production in the United States.  The paper is the result of a series of workshops led by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the University of Colorado, Oklahoma Geological Survey and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, suggests that it is possible to reduce the hazard of induced seismicity through management of injection activities.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

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