Dr. Conca reports that a magnitude 5.6 earthquake shook Oklahoma on Saturday, tied for the strongest quake ever recorded in the state. Odds are it was triggered by fracking operations, specifically the subsurface injection of fracking wastewater and produced waters in general, even from non-fracking operations. There is a connection between fracking and earthquakes in the central and eastern U.S. But the earthquakes are not a result of fracking itself. They mostly result from the injection of fracking wastewater and other waste and production water, even from non-fracking wells, at depths well-below the fracking horizon.
The larger the volumes of water injected into the subsurface, the larger the earthquakes can be. The U.S. Geological Survey just produced a seismic hazard forecast for 2016 for the central and eastern U.S. that includes both induced and natural earthquakes. While almost all of the fracking-induced or triggered earthquakes are small, less than magnitude 3, which can not be felt by most people, enough are above 3 that the USGS predicted a 5% to 17% chance of significant damage to homes and structures in just the year 2016 for areas of north-central Oklahoma and southern Kansas where fracking occurs. Presumably, this will continue each year as long as fracking continues close to the present rate. To decrease fracking-induced earthquakes, maybe we need to figure out another way to handle the wastewater.
Dr. Conca has clarified some points in the text to recognize that the re-injected water is from all drilling operations, not just fracking, and that less than 5% of the wastewater being disposed of comes from frack flowback water.
Original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2016/09/07/the-connection-between-earthquakes-and-fracking/#2602a2db6d68
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