Hydraulic fracturing

Hydraulic fracturing (also hydrofracturing, hydrofracking, fracking, or fraccing) is a well-stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of 'fracking fluid' (primarily water, containing sand or other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents) into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep-rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely. When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants (either sand or aluminium oxide) hold the fractures open.

Hydraulic fracturing began as an experiment in 1947, and the first commercially successful application followed in 1950. As of 2012, 2.5 million "frac jobs" had been performed worldwide on oil and gas wells; over one million of those within the U.S. Such treatment is generally necessary to achieve adequate flow rates in shale gas, tight gas, tight oil, and coal seam gas wells. Some hydraulic fractures can form naturally in certain veins or dikes.

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Hydraulic_fracturing

Latest News for: Fracking induced earthquakes

Earth Talk: Can fracking directly cause earthquakes?

The Columbus Telegram 13 May 2018

Is there proof that fracking for oil and natural gas can by itself cause earthquakes? — James Mitchell, Hauppauge, N.Y ... "Wastewater disposal wells typically operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than hydraulic fracturing, making them more likely to induce earthquakes," reports USGS, adding that less than 2 percent of the earthquakes in Oklahoma can be directly linked to fracking itself....

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Earth Talk

Santa Monica Daily Press 07 May 2018

Is there proof that fracking for oil and natural gas can by itself cause earthquakes? — James Mitchell, Hauppauge, NY ... “Wastewater disposal wells typically operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than hydraulic fracturing, making them more likely to induce earthquakes,” reports USGS, adding that less than two percent of the earthquakes in Oklahoma can be directly linked to fracking itself....

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Fracking may have caused rare S. Korea quake: study

This is Money 27 Apr 2018

A new study has linked fracking to a November 2017 earthquake in South Korea that injured scores of people. Fracking may have induced a rare strong earthquake last year in South Korea, a study said Friday, a potential "game changer" for the contentious practice of pumping water into the ground to extract energy ... In September 2016 a 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck in Oklahoma -- a key site for the American fracking industry....

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Fracking Might Have Led to 5.5 Magnitude Earthquake That Injured Nearly 100 People: Study

Newsweek 26 Apr 2018

Fracking may have led to one of the most powerful earthquakes to strike South Korea since records began, scientists believe ... This increased flow forces out searing fluid and steam, which companies use to generate geothermal energy.Earthquake Was Close to the Fracking Site....

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Spooked by Quakes, Oklahoma Toughens Fracking Rules

Resilience 09 Mar 2018

In Alberta, fracking has induced earthquakes in both southern and central parts of the province ... According to the Alberta Energy Regulator, which rarely reports earthquakes on a timely basis, the fracking industry induced 264 earthquakes near Fox Creek in 2017 alone ... But when asked about cube development or the growing trend toward mega- fracking, Canadian regulators said they were not worried about more earthquakes....

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Regulators bolster protocols to reduce chances of fracking-induced earthquakes shaking Oklahomans

Tulsa World 27 Feb 2018

The regulations target the SCOOP and STACK petroleum plays, which account for the "vast majority of new oil and gas activity in Oklahoma," according to the news release ... ....

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New map profiles induced earthquake risk for West Texas

Science Daily 09 Feb 2018

A map created by geophysicists can help predict which parts of West Texas and New Mexico may be at risk of fracking-induced earthquakes. The map could guide oil discovery efforts in the region.  ... ....

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Study defines link between fracking, earthquakes in northern Alberta

Canadian Business 18 Jan 2018

EDMONTON _ Scientists have figured out how hydraulic fracking causes earthquakes in northern Alberta, but they have a way to go before they can use that knowledge to predict if it will cause temblors in other areas ... “It’s only when you have all of these geological ingredients that you can have induced earthquakes.”....

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Oil And Gas Drilling Puts Oklahoma's Survival At Risk By Causing Massive Earthquakes

Newsweek 18 Jan 2018

Injecting saltwater back underground in Oklahoma, a disposal method used after fracking, has been linked to a surge in earthquakes since the oil and gas boom reached the state in 2009 ... This water is the "salty brine from ancient oceans that was entrapped in the rocks when sediments were deposited," according to a 2015 paper on induced-earthquakes, fracking, and saltwater injections....

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More Fracking, Fewer Earthquakes

The American Spectator 28 Nov 2017

Fracking is not the cause of the increases in induced seismicity ... Further, a database tracking earthquake sequences proposed to have been induced or triggered by human activity since the 1800s, administered by researchers at two universities in the United Kingdom, shows only 29 earthquakes have conclusively been linked to fracking ... “Fracking is NOT causing most of the induced earthquakes.”....

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Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke suggests solar power may not best use of public land

Denver Post 30 Sep 2017

By Dino Grandoni, The Washington Post ... Zinke then corrected himself ... What Zinke is doing ... In talking about hydraulic fracturing in front of the National Petroleum Council, for example, he didn’t mention fracking-induced earthquakes or flammable water. Instead, according to The Associated Press, he said, inexplicably, that fracking is “proof that God’s got a good sense of humor and he loves us.” ... ....

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Looking at the human factors in disasters

Wilmington News Journal 27 Sep 2017

Our first interest was evoked by an earthquake in Nicaragua’s capital city of Managua ... The following year an earthquake hit Managua, killing thousands ... The recent efforts to extract natural gas from deep in the earth (fracking) is apparently causing earthquakes ... Geological Service report, “Fracking is NOT causing most of the induced earthquakes ... An earthquake devastated Mexico City in 1985....

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2 new earthquake books give a visceral glimpse of devastation (review)

The Oregonian 27 Aug 2017

He captures the sheer sensory oddness of an earthquake ... The contribution of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to this "induced seismicity" remains disputed, but that of the burial of wastewater from fracking and drilling for oil and gas is widely accepted, and Oklahoma, the site of intensive oil and gas exploration, is now the "most seismically active state in the lower 48," Miles writes....

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