{"id":7570,"date":"2015-04-25T07:19:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-25T12:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7570"},"modified":"2015-04-25T07:19:56","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T12:19:56","slug":"oklahomas-clear-link-between-earthquakes-and-energy-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=7570","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma\u2019s Clear Link Between Earthquakes and Energy Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/e360.yale.edu\/feature\/oklahomas_clear_link_between_earthquakes_and_energy_boom\/2868\/\" target=\"_blank\">Oklahoma\u2019s Clear Link Between\u00a0Earthquakes and Energy Boom<\/a><\/h3>\n<p class=\"dek\"><strong><em>Oklahoma officials this week said oil and gas activity was the likely cause of the stunning increase in earthquakes in the state. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Oklahoma geologist Todd Halihan talks about what has caused this growing problem and what can be done about it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">Over the last few years, Oklahoma has experienced a stunning increase in the number of earthquakes. Since 2008, quakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater have hit that state 600 times more frequently than the historic average. Despite peer-reviewed studies to the contrary, Oklahoma\u2019s state government had continued to express skepticism about the link between this seismic boom and the increase in the amount of wastewater from oil\u00a0<\/span>and gas operations being injected underground.<\/p>\n<div class=\"imageright\">\n<div class=\"caption\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">That official skepticism ended this week with the<a href=\"http:\/\/earthquakes.ok.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/OGS_Summary_Statement_2015_04_20.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">announcement by the Oklahoma Geological Survey<\/a>that wastewater injection wells were, indeed, the \u201clikely\u201d cause of \u201cthe majority\u201d of that state\u2019s earthquakes.<\/p>\n<p>Geologist\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/geology.okstate.edu\/2-uncategorised\/119-thalihan-home\" target=\"_blank\">Todd Halihan<\/a>, a professor at Oklahoma State University, welcomed that announcement. Halihan, who sits on the Oklahoma Governor&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/earthquakes.ok.gov\/what-we-are-doing\/coordinating-council-on-seismic-activity\/\" target=\"_blank\">Coordinating Council on Seismic Activity<\/a>, has examined the impact of injection wells on seismic activity and compared the state\u2019s reluctance to accept the prevailing science to the Dust Bowl era, when warnings of that disaster went unheeded.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with\u00a0<em>Yale Environment 360<\/em>, Halihan outlines some possible ways that the abnormal seismic activity in Oklahoma might be tamped down. But he also explains why he believes the problem has no quick or easy fixes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yale Environment 360:<\/strong>\u00a0For a number of years, Oklahoma\u2019s state government expressed official skepticism regarding the link between injection wells and induced seismicity. So what\u2019s your reaction to the Oklahoma Geological Survey\u2019s announcement that the rise in the number of earthquakes there is very likely attributable to injection wells?<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption\">\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma\u2019s Clear Link Between\u00a0Earthquakes and Energy Boom Oklahoma officials this week said oil and gas activity was the likely cause of the stunning increase in earthquakes in the state. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Oklahoma geologist Todd Halihan talks about what has caused this growing problem and what can be done about it. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[222,331,412,2826],"class_list":["post-7570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-earthquakes","tag-fracking","tag-hydraulic-fracturing","tag-oklahoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7571,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570\/revisions\/7571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}