Study: Injection of fracking's waste near faultlines, not drilling, is responsible for quakes

A new study has found that deep injection of oil and gas wastewater appears to be causing more earthquakes than previously thought. Cliff Frohlich, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas' Institute for Geophysics, said that his findings should be taken seriously by drillers especially as the practice spreads to more densely populated areas. His work, reports Mike Soraghan of EnergyWire, was done around the Barnett Shale around Dallas to measure small earthquakes taking place near injection wells. His peer-reviewed study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Soraghan explains that "Frohlich did not find any suggestion that the earthquakes were caused by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. But fracturing creates millions of gallons of briny, toxic wastewater that drillers must eventually dispose of, usually by injecting it into the type of injection wells Frohlich was studying. That suggests, he said, that earthquakes occur only if there is a fault nearby that is susceptible to being triggered by high volumes of fluid." This suggested to Frolich that drillers could stop the earthquakes by choosing an alternate site to dispose of their wastewater. (Read more)