There has been increasing concern over the past year that hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) can cause earthquakes. I don’t understand the seismology well enough to understand the specifics, but the premise is simple enough: pumping millions of gallons of water, diesel, brine, and other liquids into the ground is liable to have an effect on the weight, shape, and distribution of land masses relative to fault lines, and could be the tipping point that causes a quake. Now a Columbia University seismologist investigating the unusual string of earthquakes in east Ohio over the past year has come to the conclusion that they were almost certainly caused by fracking. →
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Wasn’t this the plot to one of the Bond films back in the 80’s? Maybe the one with Christopher Walken?
I suppose if science has the nerve to demonstrate that pumping viscous fluid into geologically unstable faults can cause earthquakes, the oil and gas industry will be quick to pounce on the argument-in-mitigation that they’re triggering small quakes rather than letting energy build up into bigger ones?