To reduce risks of fracking completely, key is not drilling close to tectonic faults

4/9/13, "Fracking 'not significant' cause of large earthquakes," BBC, McGrath

"New research suggests that fracking is not a significant cause of earthquakes that can be felt on the surface.

UK scientists looked at quakes caused by human activity ranging from mining to oil drilling; only three could be attributed to hydraulic fracturing.

Most fracking events released the same amount of energy as jumping off a ladder, the Durham-based team said. They argue that the integrity of well bores drilled for fracking is of much greater concern.

The research is published in the Journal of Marine and Petroleum Geology.

In recent years, hydraulic fracturing has become a significant means of recovering oil and gas that is too tightly bound into rock formations to be recovered by normal drilling.

Fracking, as it is called, utilises a mixture of water, sand and chemicals pumped underground at high pressure to crack open sedimentary rocks and release the fuels within....

If oil and gas exploration companies want to reduce the risk from fracking completely, the key thing according to Prof Davies is not to drill too close to tectonic faults."...

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Ed. note: The BBC article's link to the Journal cited was dead. I looked up the Journal's website on google and put the above link in myself. I couldn't find the exact story BBC referred to which is why the link is just to the website's front page.





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