Earthquakes force Ohio to shut down a fracking disposal well

[Shiloh]

Source: http://www.wksu.org/news/story/30335

Friday, December 30, 2011
Earthquakes force Ohio to shut down a fracking disposal well
State says it isn't sure the Youngstown quakes are linked to the disposal well, but it can't take a chance
by WKSU's M.L. SCHULTZE

News Director
M.L. Schultze

In The Region:

Another earthquake in the Youngstown area has caused the state to shut down a well that?s been taking in millions of gallons of fluid left over from the drilling process called ?fracking.?

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced today that the Youngstown deep-injection well is suspending operations.

The area has experienced a series of small earthquakes since the well started operating about nine months ago. The most recent, on Christmas Eve, was two miles down and within a mile of the injection site....

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Earthquakes force Ohio to shut down a fracking disposal well

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/01/us/ohio-earthquake/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Work halted at 4 more Ohio fluid-injection wells in wake of quake
From Maggie Schneider, CNN
updated 6:18 PM EST, Sun January 1, 2012

Officials have shut down fluid-injection wells in eastern Ohio in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Ohio officials order the closure of four fluid-injection wells near Youngstown
* This comes amid a probe looking at links between "fracking" and recent quakes
* "We need to get more information," an official says of any possible connection
* A magnitude 4.0 quake struck Saturday, one of 11 to occur in the past year

(CNN) -- Work has been halted at four more fluid-injection wells in eastern Ohio in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area, a state official said.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer had announced on Friday that one such well -- which injects "fluid deep underground into porous rock formations, such as sandstone or limestone, or into or below the shallow soil layer," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains -- was closed after a series of small earthquakes in and around Youngstown.

Then on Saturday, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck that released at least 40 times more energy than any of the previous 10 or more tremors that had rattled the region in 2011...

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Earthquakes force Ohio to shut down a fracking disposal well

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0102/How-fracking-might-have-led-to-an-Ohio-earthquake

How fracking might have led to an Ohio earthquake

The 4.0 Ohio earthquake this weekend was a reminder that activities related to hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking,' can cause seismic faults to shift if not carried out carefully.

By Pete Spotts, Staff writer / January 2, 2012

The link between "fracking"-related activities and earthquakes was thrown into stark relief over the weekend when a magnitude 4.0 quake struck Youngstown, Ohio ? typically not a hot bed of noticeable seismic activity. The quake triggered shaking reportedly felt as as far away as Buffalo, N.Y., and Toronto...

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Earthquakes force Ohio to shut down a fracking disposal well

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...-central-u-s-tied-to-drilling-wastewater.html

Earthquake Outbreak in Central U.S. Tied to Drilling Wastewater
By Mark Drajem - Apr 12, 2012 12:56 PM ET

A spate of earthquakes across the middle of the U.S. is ?almost certainly? manmade, and may coincide with wastewater from oil or gas drilling injected into the ground, U.S. government scientists said in a new study.

Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey said that for the three decades until 2000, seismic events averaged 21 a year in a central U.S. region. They jumped to 50 in 2009, 87 in 2010 and 134 in 2011.

Those statistics, included in the abstract of a research paper to be discussed at the Seismological Society of America conference next week in San Diego, were released a month after Ohio officials concluded that earthquakes there last year probably were caused by wastewater from hydraulic fracturing for natural gas injected into a disposal well, a state report said in March...

 

[Emily]

Re: Earthquakes force Ohio to shut down a fracking disposal well

SSA - 2012 Annual Meeting
Session: The M5.8 Central Virginia and the M5.6 Oklahoma Earthquakes of 2011
Conveners: Stephen Horton, CERI at Univ of Memphis and Robert Williams, USGS

Are Seismicity Rate Changes in the Midcontinent Natural or Manmade?

ELLSWORTH, W. L., US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, ; HICKMAN, S. H., US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, ; LLEONS, A. L., US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, ; MCGARR, A., US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, ; MICHAEL, A. J., US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, ; RUBINSTEIN, J. L., US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA,

A remarkable increase in the rate of M 3 and greater earthquakes is currently in progress in the US midcontinent. The average number of M >= 3 earthquakes/year increased starting in 2001, culminating in a six-fold increase over 20th century levels in 2011. Is this increase natural or manmade? To address this question, we take a regional approach to explore changes in the rate of earthquake occurrence in the midcontinent (defined here as 85? to 108? West, 25? to 50? North) using the USGS Preliminary Determination of Epicenters and National Seismic Hazard Map catalogs. These catalogs appear to be complete for M >= 3 since 1970. From 1970 through 2000, the rate of M >= 3 events averaged 21 +- 7.6/year in the entire region. This rate increased to 29 +- 3.5 from 2001 through 2008. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, 50, 87 and 134 events occurred, respectively. The modest increase that began in 2001 is due to increased seismicity in the coal bed methane field of the Raton Basin along the Colorado-New Mexico border west of Trinidad, CO. The acceleration in activity that began in 2009 appears to involve a combination of source regions of oil and gas production, including the Guy, Arkansas region, and in central and southern Oklahoma. Horton, et al. (2012) provided strong evidence linking the Guy, AR activity to deep waste water injection wells. In Oklahoma, the rate of M >= 3 events abruptly increased in 2009 from 1.2/year in the previous half-century to over 25/year. This rate increase is exclusive of the November 2011 M 5.6 earthquake and its aftershocks. A naturally-occurring rate change of this magnitude is unprecedented outside of volcanic settings or in the absence of a main shock, of which there were neither in this region. While the seismicity rate changes described here are almost certainly manmade, it remains to be determined how they are related to either changes in extraction methodologies or the rate of oil and gas production.
Wednesday, April 18th / 3:45 PM Oral / Pacific Salon 4 & 5