Carbon Capture and Storage Can Cause Earthquakes, Making It ‘a Risky and Likely Unsuccessful Strategy’

New research suggests that carbon capture and storage (CCS) may be a far more limited climate solution than previously thought because it can induce earthquakes, which can cause CO2 leakage.

We’ve known for a long time that underground injection of massive quantities of liquids or high-pressure gases can induce earthquakes.  Even a very small leakage rate of well under 1% a year would render the storage system all but useless as a “permanent repository”.

CCS-driven earthquakes have been mostly a theoretical concern — until now. Seismologists studied why a Texas oil field had “93 well-recorded earthquakes occurring between March 2009 and December 2010,” some of which exceeded Magnitude 3.  They found a close correlation between these quakes and large-scale CO2 injections into the field.

Carbon Capture and Storage Can Cause Earthquakes, Making It ‘a Risky and Likely Unsuccessful Strategy’