Texas city in fracking area is rocked by 11 earthquakes in 24 hours

[marmar]

from Grist:


On the heels of a report linking 77 earthquakes in Ohio to fracking, a Texas city in an area rife with drilling operations was hit with a wave of 11 earthquakes in 24 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. The most intense registered 3.6 on the Richter scale, well over the level at which people would feel it — the local 911 service received more than 300 calls from residents trying to figure out what was going on.



These recent quakes bring the total number to 26 since October in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. James Joiner reports at The Daily Beast that north Texas has seen more than a hundred quakes since 2008, when fracking operations began to ramp up, a dramatic increase from years previous.

Something similar is going on in neighboring Oklahoma, where, as we mentioned yesterday, there have been 586 earthquakes of magnitude 3 or greater in just one year — the most of any state in the contiguous U.S. in 2014. Between 1975 and 2008, the state only got, on average, three earthquakes of this magnitude per year. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/news/texas-city-in-fracking-area-is-rocked-by-11-earthquakes-in-24-hours/

[marions ghost]

1. Pro frackers coming in soon...

to tell us there's no connection...

[rhett o rick]

4. No one here is "pro fracking". There are those that are anti-fracking

and those that will not commit. If the Pres should decide that fracking is bad, they will emerge and wave the banner like they are now with the XL (Koch) Pipeline.

Fracking is one of the issues, like the TPP, which separates the progressives from the pro-Corps.

[sabrina 1]

10. Well said. Fracking has been banned in NY thankfully. I was pleasantly surprised that Cuomo

made that decision as it was not his position for a long time. We thought it was going to be a huge fight up here for a number of years. But he suddenly announced that he had decided to ban it completely.

Everyone who cares about the planet should be condemning this dangerous business. I was surprised also to see that even on the Corporate Media last night, when they reported on the Texas earthquake story, they actually did mention Fracking as a possible cause.

[marions ghost]

15. OK

if you want to get technical about it. But if you're a fence sitter on fracking you are--de facto--pro-fracking.
It's an either/or thing by now, since everyone more or less finally understands it. States that are gung-ho fracking are backward states.

I have seen a few come here and actually try to defend it.

[rhett o rick]

23. I am really not taking issue with what you said only poking a stick at those that

"fence-sit" waiting for guidance from the President.

[marions ghost]

25. OK

---

[cstanleytech]

9. The thing I dont get is leaving the earthuake issue aside since they have been happening for

billions of years before humans even existed is why they support the injection of chemicals that can potentially contaminate their water supplies.
I mean talk about your boneheaded things to do.

[malaise]

2. They want it so

Disgusting

[WhiteTara]

3. Irving is only a dozen or so miles from downtown Dallas...

the city made of glass. Should be interesting times there.

[ananda]

11. Yes.

I was thinking along similar lines.

Irving is a close suburb of Dallas.

Wait till this affects the big city.

[CanonRay]

5. Coincidince

Must be the San Irving fault...

[cstanleytech]

8. Actually there are some faults so ya it could be a natural event not related to

fracking, thats not to say that the fracking isnt the trigger though and it wouldnt surprise me if it was but since the faults do exist it means proving it was the fracking is going to take alot of work.

[Rex]

14. Balconies faultline.

Even though Texas is tectonically stable, we still have some huge faultlines. And surprise, surprise - they run right through that area.

[CanonRay]

16. When was the last time that fault had 11 quakes in a day?

or even two?

[Oilwellian]

6. It has to be the hand of God, reaching down and shaking the land

He's trying to tell the people of Texas something important. What ever can it be?

[ananda]

12. That Ted Cruz is a fracking sinkhole?

[hughee99]

20. Sounds like the rapture to me. n/t

[Dont call me Shirley]

26. Too many of them sneaker wearin' abortionists and gays and and environmentalists, yeah

[mountain grammy]

7. Hello? Anybody home?

I hope Coloradans wake up soon. Already feeling tremors in the east.

[LiberalArkie]

13. I am in favor of constant fracking all over the Dallas/Ft Worth, East Texas and Houston

They really need to speed it up some. ;>

[Takket]

17. at least they have their guns to protect them!

[Quixote1818]

18. This guy does some pretty interesting analysis

[Quixote1818]

19. Denton just voted to ban fracking in a landslide

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20141105-denton-fracking-ban-passed-in-landslide1.ece

[herding cats]

21. It looks like they're still having them, too.

USGS: 2.6-magnitude quake Friday morning near Bachman Lake in Northwest Dallas

Well, we made it through at least one day without feeling an earthquake.
Related

But following Thursday morning’s pair o’ mini-temblors near the former Texas Stadium site, the U.S. Geological Survey confirms your tweets and emails following some late-morning shaking going on in Irving. Only this one was in Dallas.

Says the USGS, we had a 2.6-magnitude quake at 11:39 along Harry Hines Boulevard, near the Webb Chapel Extension split at Bachman Lake. The ghost of Club Schmitz!

That’s No. 15 since Tuesday’s 3.5-magnitude quake that half the people in your office felt. I’ve lost count how many that’s been since September — something like 30. Could be a thousand. Hard to say. And as a Northwest Dallas resident, I’m also suffering from Phantom Quake Syndrome. Or PTSD. Could just be those new cracks in the wall.

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2015/01/usgs-confirms-2-6-magnitude-earthquake-friday-morning-near-bachman-lake-in-northwest-dallas.html/

[NightWatcher]

22. un uh, it's angels that are upset because teh gays can marry in more places now

Don't you go trying to get all science-y with me just because we're pumping chemicals deep into the ground in order to force other things out.

[marions ghost]

24. NBC coverage mentions fracking

http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/are-earthquakes-texas-becoming-new-trend-n282621

[Thinkingabout]

27. Either the process of fracking is wrong or the rules are not followed, may be a little of both.

I have apprehensive of the tracking process from the start and either it is going to be banned or the process will change to prevent results of earthquakes. Perhaps tracking can work in areas where there are not any faults but it does not end well in some places.

[tammywammy]

28. There's a group from SMU monitoring the situation

The earthquakes have been going on for months. They present their findings next week. Fracking has been discussed on the news regularly in relation to the earthquakes.

[Thinkingabout]

30. Yes I saw an article where SMU is looking into the earthquakes. I was talking to a

Republican this week who lives in the area, she also thinks it is the tracking. Some regulations needs to be added or just stop the process.

[tammywammy]

31. It seems most do think it's related.

I think it's a combination of a fault line and fracking. They're fracking all over the area and the earthquakes are only happening in Irving.

[Thinkingabout]

33. They have geologist at their disposal, they need to report the fault lines also.

[tammywammy]

34. It's an already established fault line. It's not one that just popped up. n/t

[gratuitous]

29. NBC Evening News had a report on this last night

They were talking with some university researcher in Texas who had been monitoring the situation. She acknowledged that fracking might have something to do with the seismic activity and her lab was looking hard at that. She also stated that there were many other possibilities for causes, though she didn't specify any. I couldn't help thinking, "Yeah, and if your lab depends for its funding on oil company largesse to any degree, let me guess how long it will be before you're comfortable publicly pointing the finger at fracking."

I'm confident that this being Texas, and as wide open for business as the Lone Star State is, if fracking is the culprit we won't know it for sure in my lifetime (which is to say the next 25 years).

[tammywammy]

35. She would be with SMU. n/t

[gratuitous]

36. Yes, it was SMU

Thanks!

[Ron Green]

32. When I was dating a girl in Irving in 1970,

the earth would move several times a day.

[Art_from_Ark]

37. I bet the sky came tumbling down, too