Earthquake in OK and fracking any possible connection?

[EdmondLeaf]

I am not an expert but would like to hear your opinion
http://news.yahoo.com/big-quake-follows-increase-oklahoma-rumblings-203947305.html

"There are 181 injection wells in the Oklahoma county where most of the weekend earthquakes happened, said Matt Skinner, spokesman for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which oversees oil and gas production in the state and intrastate transportation pipelines. But natural gas companies claim there is no proof of a connection between injection wells and earthquakes, and a study released earlier this year by an Oklahoma Geological Survey seismologist seems to back that up. It found most of the state's seismic activity didn't appear to be tied to the wells, although more investigation was needed."

 

[TomT]

Highly unlikely.

I am not an expert but would like to hear your opinion
http://news.yahoo.com/big-quake-follows-increase-oklahoma-rumblings-203947305.html

 

[LakeLeaf]

It was pretty shallow but still well below where I think they do fracking at.

 

[Herm]

It may be better if fracking promotes lots of small quakes, vs stresses building up and releasing into a big quake.. so maybe fracking saves lives!

 

[Fabio]

I don't know if the Oklahoma or the Virginia quakes were caused by fracking (if I had to bet I'd lean that way though), however even the Natural Gas industry admits that this technique causes quakes: http://www.businessinsider.com/fracking-earthquakes-uk-2011-11" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Hedge74]

It was pretty shallow but still well below where I think they do fracking at.

The shale plays in Oklahoma and Texas are at a depth of around 7000 ft Give or take a 1000ft.

 

[willietjustice]

It was pretty shallow but still well below where I think they do fracking at.

The shale plays in Oklahoma and Texas are at a depth of around 7000 ft Give or take a 1000ft.

That seems to be at the low end of the range of error statedfor the depth, which was 3.1 miles +/- 1.7 miles (3.1-1.7=1.4 miles, or 7392 feet), but another article references a seismologist's comment from a Texas quake last month. He said that they drill deeper wells for disposal of the fluid that comes back up from the fracking process.

he told KUT News, "It isn’t the fracking that’s causing the quake. It’s when they drill a well and produce it some of the fracking fluids come back. They dispose of these fluids and it appears that the disposal of these fluids is causing the quakes, not the fracking.”

 

[LEAFfan]

It may be better if fracking promotes lots of small quakes, vs stresses building up and releasing into a big quake.. so maybe fracking saves lives!

Small is a relative term. This was OK LARGEST earthquake ever.

 

[Adrian]

I think they've been fracing in OK for many years. If there was a correlation, I would have expected an earthquake 30 years ago.

 

[LakeLeaf]

Still a lot of shaking going on. And still shallow too.

I'm used to seeing California quakes which vary quite a bit in depth - a few k to a few dozen k deep.