For the First Time, Scientists Prove Fracking Caused an Earthquake Strong Enough to Be Felt by Humans

A series of 77 earthquakes in Ohio — including one strong enough to be felt by humans — was caused by the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, scientists claimed in research published Tuesday in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA).

Fracking has been attributed to small earthquakes in Ohio before.  But those earthquakes were all too small to be felt.  Tuesday’s study is the first time scientists have attributed a larger earthquake to fracking, the process of injecting high-pressure water, sand, and chemicals underground to crack shale rock and let gas flow out more easily.

The scientists, from the University of Miami, identified 77 earthquakes of varying size in the Poland Township of Ohio, all occurring between March 4 and March 12 and all located near a group of oil and gas wells.  The quakes ranged between magnitudes of 1.0 and 3.0, but the local community reportedly only felt one, a magnitude 3.0 on March 10.

According to study co-author Robert Skoumal, that magnitude 3.0 quake was “one the largest earthquakes ever induced by hydraulic fracturing in the United States.”

To make his determination, Skoumal and his colleagues compared the series of earthquakes to reports that showed the timing of fracking at those oil and gas wells, all operated by Hilcorp Energy.  They found the earthquakes “coincided temporally and spatially with hydraulic fracturing at specific stages of the stimulation,” the BSSA said in a press release.

The research doesn’t prove that all fracking causes earthquakes, but it does suggest that fracking occurring near fault lines has the potential to cause them.  The BSSA noted that the 77 Ohio quakes occurred along one fault line within .06 miles of the well sites, and that fracking occurring at other nearby wells not near that fault line produced no seismicity.

“It appears that a relatively small portion of the operation is responsible for the events,” Skoumal said in the press release. ”

Because of that, Skoumal recommended “cooperation among government, industry and the scientific community” to try to prevent fracking operations in places where there may be known or unknown faults.  As it turns out, seismologists did not know about the fault near the oil and gas wells owned by Hilcorp until Skoumal and his colleagues undertook the study.

Read more at For the First Time, Scientists Prove Fracking Caused an Earthquake Strong Enough to Be Felt by Humans