Fracking, Wastewater Injection, and Earthquakes
I was just reading an interesting article on wastewater injection and earthquakes. The process of fracking, that is fracturing tight shales to allow hydrocarbon production, can involve the production of large volumes of waste fluids. These are then typically re-injected into the ground. The injected fluid has been shown in some areas to lead to increases in the number of earthquakes. Examples are the Rocky Mountain arsenal in February 1966, and Basel Switzerland in 2009.
With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to use the Hazard Viewer to determine how the probability of earthquakes may have increased in Oklahoma.
The image below is a screenshot from the Hazard Viewer with a selection circle of about 150 km radius.
The probabilities of earthquakes of various sizes are given in the table.
The forecast timeseries for M>5 earthquakes is shown in the screenshot below, and clearly shows an increase in earthquake probability beginning at about the end of 2011.
About OpenHazards Bloggers
Steven Ward is a Research Geophysicist at
the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, UC Santa Cruz. He specializes in the quantification and simulation of
natural hazards. Read Steve's blog.
John Rundle is a Distinguished Professor of Physics
and Geology at UC Davis and
the Executive Director of the APEC Collaboration for Earthquake Simulations. He
chaired the Board of Advisors for the Southern California Earthquake Center from 1994 to 1996. Read John's blog.
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