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| Abram Loeb, a fracking opponent (Spencer Platt / Getty Images / AFP) |
Ohio lawmakers have put a temporary ban on fracking after experts say it is certain that recent fracking in the Buckeye State caused an outbreak of earthquakes.
According to some seismologists, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is to blame for a string of tremors in Ohio, including a 4.0-magnitude quake on New Year’s Eve. It has long been suggested that fracking, which involves deep-earth drilling to extract gas for natural resource reserves, has been culpable for quakes. In the fracking process, wastewater collected during the deep drilling is injected back into the Earth for disposal. Thought to be safe by some, other experts insist that the brine water could find its way into subterranean faults and force parts of the planet to separate. The Youngstown, OH area has seen 11 small quakes since last spring, and now a moratorium has been instated in the area to keep future fracking from occurring while seismologists reinvestigate the quakes.
Even with a stay in place, however, experts say the quakes won’t be stopping anytime soon.
"The earthquakes will trickle on as a kind of a cascading process once you've caused them to occur," John Armbruster of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory tells the Associated Press. "This one year of pumping is a pulse that has been pushed into the ground, and it's going to be spreading out for at least a year."
Ray Beiersdorfer, a geology professor at Youngstown State University, adds to the Business Journal, “I wouldn't be surprised if it continued for a year or so." MORE http://rt.com/usa/news/fracking-ohio-quake-earth-165/
Related:
How Fracking caused an Ohio earthquake
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