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posted by martyb on Sunday January 21 2018, @11:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the shake-rattle-and-roll dept.

Why some fracking wells are prone to triggering earthquakes

Some of the biggest fracking-induced earthquakes in the world — including three higher than magnitude 4.0 that could be felt by humans — have taken place in the Kaybob Duvernay Formation near Fox Creek, [Alberta]. But they've happened only in certain areas and only since 2013, even though fracking began there in 2010. Why?

A study led by Ryan Schultz, a seismologist with the Alberta Energy Regulator and a geophysical research scientist at the University of Alberta, shows that the underlying geology determines whether earthquakes can be induced at all by a particular well. But if an earthquake can be induced, then the number of earthquakes increased with the amount of fluid pumped into the well, reports the study published Thursday in the journal Science [DOI: 10.1126/science.aao0159] [DX].

The authors of the study, which also involved researchers at Western University, the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta and Natural Resources Canada, came to that conclusion after analyzing drilling records for around 300 wells in the region submitted to the Alberta Energy Regulator. They found that the reason earthquakes didn't start there until 2013 was because companies didn't start drilling earthquake-prone wells until then.

So what makes a well earthquake prone? Earthquakes happen at faults, where two of the Earth's tectonic plates come together. Earthquakes occur when the two plates slip or slide relative to one another. In order to cause an earthquake, a fracking well needs to have a physical connection via the underlying rock to a fault that is oriented so that the pressure of fluid from the well can change the stress on that fault and increase the chance of it slipping.

Also at the University of Alberta.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 22 2018, @03:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 22 2018, @03:35AM (#625933)

    ...sounds like something that... uh... might be expected, even with a layman's grasp of geophysics....

    Geophysics?
    What you talking about? Everybody knows it's turtles all the way down, make no mistakes (or faults).