Earthquakes in Edmond

[OKCHunter]

This should be required reading and a test given so put up your nooses already!

Thanks for the link. Looks like I need to do more research. Rope has been rolled back up.

 

[Raoul Duke]

 

[Hobbes]

Hobbes they've been choking injection activity down for almost 2 years. We've only heard of it lately because they've really ramped that up this year. And anyone that doesn't have their head buried in the sand can see that the earthquakes have increased in spite of this. There almost seems to be a correlation that the more restrictions they impose the more earthquakes we get. 'Splain that one...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The OCC is dragging their feet, closing the fewest wells possible and and only the ones directly implicated.
It's a far cry from what responsible regulations would look like.

But it's tacit admission that they KNOW what's causing them.
They HAVE known for a while and everyone has been in the denial phase.
Some people still are.

 

[Hobbes]

Abstract

In October 2014 two moderate-sized earthquakes (Mw 4.0 and 4.3) struck south of Cushing, Oklahoma, below the largest crude oil storage facility in the world. Combined analysis of the spatial distribution of earthquakes and regional moment tensor focal mechanisms indicate reactivation of a subsurface unnamed and unmapped left-lateral strike-slip fault. Coulomb failure stress change calculations using the relocated seismicity and slip distribution determined from regional moment tensors, allow for the possibility that the Wilzetta-Whitetail fault zone south of Cushing, Oklahoma, could produce a large, damaging earthquake comparable to the 2011 Prague event. Resultant very strong shaking levels (MMI VII) in the epicentral region present the possibility of this potential earthquake causing moderate to heavy damage to national strategic infrastructure and local communities.

Cushing, Oklahoma, is an area of concern because it is a major hub of the U.S. oil and gas pipeline transportation system that includes operational sections of the Keystone pipeline [https://www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov]. The earthquake sequence in October 2014 (Mw 4.0 and 4.3) reactivated a complex intersection of conjugate strike-slip structures within the Wilzetta-Whitetail fault zone, similar to the 2011 Prague, Oklahoma (Mw 5.6) earthquake sequence. To place constraints on the potential hazard of future earthquakes in the region, we examined the source characteristics of the October 2014 Cushing earthquake sequence and resultant Coulomb failure stress change (ΔCFS).

The strong shaking (MMI VI) (Okalahoma Geological Survey, 2011, http://www.okgeosurvey1.gov/pages/earthquakes/information.php) felt during the October 2014 Cushing earthquake sequence led the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) to temporarily close down several wastewater injection wells in the epicentral region. Minor damage was also reported throughout the city of Cushing including cracked plaster, broken window glass, and items thrown from shelves. The Mw 4.3 earthquake was widely felt up to 210 km north in Wichita, Kansas, and 240 km east in Fayettville, Arkansas. In November 2011, the same fault zone hosted a sequence of moderate-to-large, damaging earthquakes, near the town of Prague, which included the largest recorded earthquake in Oklahoma history (Mw 4.8, 5.6, and 4.8) [McNamara et al., 2015; Keranen et al., 2013]. Based on previous studies linking hydraulic fracturing [Holland, 2013a] and wastewater disposal [Keranen et al., 2014; Weingarten et al., 2015; Walsh and Zoback, 2015], to increased seismicity in central Oklahoma, a study of the changing earthquake hazard caused by the October 2014 Cushing sequence and its relationship to wastewater injection is important in order to understand potential damage to critical infrastructure in the region.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015GL064669/full

 

[Hobbes]

Commission hit by cuts to staff, budget

The commission staff has been hit by budget cuts, and commissioners in the past have questioned whether they have the authority to crack down on disposal wells because of earthquakes. But at a fall legislative hearing, one of the three commissioners, Dana Murphy, asserted that they do have authority.

Commission officials have also indicated that proving a case might be hindered because there is currently no state seismologist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) to explain the science behind the commission's actions.

"We are very concerned we don't have seismologists we can consult," Skinner said earlier this month. OGS Director Jerry Boak has said he has more staff now than before his two seismologists left. But the agency has not replaced top seismologist Austin Holland EnergyWire, Sept. 24).

Commissioners are statewide elected officials and get most of their contributions from the oil and gas industry. But commissioners say that would have no effect on how they carry out their judicial duties.

State Rep. Cory Williams (D) of Stillwater, one of the most active legislators on the earthquake issue, said SandRidge's defiance highlights the limits of industry cooperation.

"It's imperative that we pass legislation enabling the corporation commission to make these kind of decisions in the field, not wait on voluntary compliance," Williams said. "We need a stick."

http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060029814

 

[Raoul Duke]

An upsurge of earthquakes linked to the oil and gas industry continues to rattle Oklahoma, but new research suggests most of the significant earthquakes recorded in the state over the last century also were likely triggered by drilling activity.

The findings, published today in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, link many historical Oklahoma earthquakes presumed to be natural in origin to oil and gas operations where wastewater and other fluids were pumped underground - a phenomenon known as induced seismicity.

The research is based on data of 3.5-magnitude or greater earthquakes and a comprehensive catalog of well sites that Hough and co-author Morgan Page of the USGS built with information extracted from archives of often-handwritten county oil and gas records.

The research suggests links between earthquakes and oil and gas operations dating back to the 1920s, including wastewater injection into disposal wells - the activity scientists think is fueling the state’s recent earthquake uptick - and another process known as “enhanced oil recovery,” where fluid is pumped underground to boost oil production.

The data suggest two high-profile Oklahoma earthquakes in the 1950s likely were induced: the 5.7-magnitude El Reno temblor that toppled chimneys and smokestacks and left a 50-foot crack in the state Capitol in 1952, and a 3.9-magnitude quake that shook Tulsa County in 1956.

All but one of the earthquakes recorded that decade were located “close to an injection well that was permitted prior to the earthquakes,” Hough says.

https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2015/10/20/new-study-on-historical-shaking-suggests-a-century-of-oil-and-gas-earthquakes-in-oklahoma/

 

[Hobbes]

I searched the earthquake archive at USGS to find the number of magnitude 3 and greater earthquakes in OK by month for the year 2015

Jan 73

Feb 53

Mar 81

Apr 74

May 56

Jun 93

Jul 68

Aug 63

Sep 57

Oct 60

Nov 61

Dec 49

This is what it looks like on a graph, attached View attachment graph.pdf

430 quakes in the first 6 months, 358 in second 6 months.

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

That graph is disingenuous in that it only uses data from the high end of the quakes. In a month where there may have been a low number of the high end quakes there might have been a reciprocal number of lower order quakes, meaning when the number of high order quakes was low, there may have been a corresponding high number of low order quakes.

What would be of greater value would be a graph showing the average magnitude per month rather than the number of quakes per month.

Woody

 

[Hobbes]

That graph is disingenuous in that it only uses data from the high end of the quakes. In a month where there may have been a low number of the high end quakes there might have been a reciprocal number of lower order quakes, meaning when the number of high order quakes was low, there may have been a corresponding high number of low order quakes.

What would be of greater value would be a graph showing the average magnitude per month rather than the number of quakes per month.

Woody

Well Woody, why don't you do that?
Slice and dice to your hearts content.
Instead of searching for a loophole maybe you could fix a broken foundation or something.

 

[Hobbes]

****!
I have one guy telling me the number of earthquakes isn't decreasing in spite of oil well closures.
Then I present data that shows a decreasing number of earthquakes.
When I show the number of quakes is decreasing woody moves the goalpost and demands a weighted average of earthquake intensity.

Can you guys agree on one argument and stick with it?