Hydraulic cracking causes a new type of earthquake

Hydrocarbon extraction is not only done with traditional drilling. There is also the method of fracking, the hydraulic cracking which has accelerated the production of fossil fuels in the 21st century. In practice, the subsoil dissolves using high-pressure liquids, creating cracks that open access to gas and oil. However, scientists researching fracking fields in Canada have discovered that the technique could produce a new type of earthquake.

About 10% of the 350 earthquakes recorded at a depth of 5 months, a few kilometers away from a gas reservoir, were slower and lasted longer than standard earthquakes.

We assumed that earthquakes caused by fracking behaved like most earthquakes and had about the same speed, two or three kilometers per second.

Using a network of seismic stations around a fracking site, the researchers found data they had predicted but never recorded. The new type of earthquake releases little seismic energy and is usually measured at 2 Richter or less. However, the biggest earthquake attributed to fracking is China in 2018, which had a magnitude of 5.7 Richter, but is considered very rare.

But if a fault is near the location of the fracking, a small earthquake can trigger it, resulting in a much larger one, even hundreds of kilometers away. Further study is needed to fully understand the mechanisms that lead from small fracking earthquakes to larger earthquakes, but at the same time there is pressure from many scientists to stop this technique altogether as it poses many risks to the atmosphere and the health of the inhabitants of the area. .

The research was published in Nature Communications.

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