Shake And Bake
Thursday 3 July 2014 • 5:00 PM
From the PBS Newshour’s Rundown blog:
Research published in Thursday’s edition of the journal, Science, shows that just four of these wells could be responsible for one-fifth of the region’s earthquakes experienced between 2008 and 2013. These are four high-volume wells used in disposal operations near Oklahoma City, researchers at Cornell University found.
“The pressure of the water in the pore space of rock can reduce the forces keeping a fault locked, and potentially trigger a rupture,” reports Science news.
This is a possible explanation for the recent surge of earthquakes in the region. Since the start of the year, the state has already seen 240 quakes measuring a magnitude of 3.0 or greater.
Earthquakes in Oklahoma are like tornadoes in Seattle: they aren’t natural and shouldn’t happen.