On Oct 22, 9:04*pm, Al Fansome wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/sc...cking.html?hpw

October 21, 2011
Expert Says Quakes in England May Be Tied to Gas Extraction
By HENRY FOUNTAIN

A British seismologist said Friday that two minor earthquakes in
northwestern England “appeared to correlate closely” with the use of
hydraulic fracturing, a method of extracting natural gas from wells that
has raised concerns about environmental and seismological risks in the
United States.

The scientist, Brian Baptie, seismic project team leader with the
British Geological Survey, said data from the two quakes near Blackpool
— one of magnitude 2.3 on April 1, the other of magnitude 1.5 on May 27
— suggested the temblors arose from the same source. Cuadrilla
Resources, a British energy company, was conducting hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking, operations at a well nearby when the quakes
occurred.

In fracking, water, sand and chemicals are injected into a well at high
pressure to split shale rock and release trapped gas.

The company suspended its fracking operations shortly after the second
earthquake, which, like the first, was barely felt and caused no damage.
Paul Kelly, a Cuadrilla spokesman, said a report by several academic
scientists on the quakes, commissioned by the company, should be
released in a few weeks.

“We’re waiting for the independent report,” he said.

One possibility is that the British government, through the Department
of Energy and Climate Change, might require modification to the fracking
process.

Mr. Kelly said Cuadrilla Resources had drilled three wells — the only
shale-gas wells so far in Britain — and had conducted fracking
operations at only one.

Fracking is now widespread in the United States, and has been blamed by
some landowners, environmentalists and public officials for
contaminating waterways and drinking water supplies. Some critics have
also said that the technology could cause significant earthquakes.

But Stephen Horton, a seismologist at the University of Memphis, said,
“Generally speaking, fracking doesn’t create earthquakes that are large
enough to be felt.” Even so, Mr. Horton said that after looking at the
British Geological Survey’s analysis of the Blackpool earthquakes, “the
conclusions are reasonable.”

Mr. Horton and others investigated a swarm of earthquakes in 2010 and
2011, including one of magnitude 4.7, in an area of central Arkansas
where fracking was being conducted. The scientists found that the
earthquakes were probably caused not by fracking but by the disposal of
waste liquids from the process into other wells. Those wells have since
been shut down.

Mr. Baptie said that in the Blackpool quakes, the high-pressure
injection of water during fracking may have reduced the stresses on a
nearby fault, causing it to slip.

He said one question was whether even larger earthquakes could occur if
the fracking continued. While he said that it might be possible to go
from a magnitude 2.3 to about a 3.0, “the chances of getting a very
large earthquake are negligible.”

What great names these lads have. Fountain and Bapti... oh... Ah well;
nearly have.

Did I post on here about the shape of coastlines and how they relate
to the presence of gas wells off Wales?
(All one of them?)

Only it's just that said well is in Morcambe Bay -as is Blackpool.

And as a nod to our cousins across the pond I dip my hat in the water
afforded a saving grace by none other than Benjamin Franklin and
pesuppose that pouring oil on troubled waters only works under
atmospheric conditions.

Perhaps they aught to pour air in there not water and consolidates?

Wonders off looking for a missing link (monkey-men need not apply.)