Fracking operations at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site have been suspended again after four earthquakes in the space of just half an hour.
The strongest of the earthquakes measured 1.1 ‘ML’ (local magnitude or Richter magnitude) – roughly four times the level at which fracking companies are obliged to halt operations for review.
The latest quakes follow a series of quakes of at least the threshold level for pause.
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Yes think have been 17 tremors or more in 11 days and this is the last thing the Earth needs! Read in New Left Review that whilst petroleum has an energy density of 30:1 (that is it takes the energy from one barrel to produce 30) Fracking only has a density of 7:1 plus according to a Unite report each well can only last for 3 years so you would need thousands for it to be profitable in the UK.
According to the Observer Business pages a battle was going on between OPEC oil producers and frackers in the US and the former may have deliberately forced a lower price per barrel as Fracking particularly in the US needs $80 a barrel to survive (last I read it is now up to $100 a barrel) but let’s be clear big business is pouring in behind UK Fracking despite much evidence on its negative impact on the environment and on citizens. It may be about energy security but is fundamentally about (for those who don’t put the planet first) profit!
Ban Fracking & Labour will!
Seems to me you’ve presented the main anti-fracking info in 2 paras – well done. If I can I will repost it on Fb feeling sure you won’t mind.
17+ tremors and they haven’t even started drilling sideways yet.
I live not far away. I used to live closer, only a couple of miles from a Cuadrilla site and once felt a quake lasting quite a few seconds around 1am that rattled the pictures on my walls.
Went downstairs to chat with neighbours in the street and learned from them about the fracking trials happening just down the road, since I don’t read local papers.
Haven’t felt one since but I’m about ten miles away now – not for that reason 🙂
From the US Geological Survey:
“The largest earthquake induced by fluid injection that has been documented in the scientific literature was the September 23, 2016 earthquake in central Oklahoma. It had a magnitude of 5.8. 4 M5+ earthquakes have occurred in Oklahoma, 3 of which occurred in 2016. In 2011 a magnitude 5.3 earthquake was induced by fluid injection in the Raton Basin, Colorado. Earthquakes with magnitudes between 4.5 and 5.0 have been induced by fluid injection in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, and Texas.”
My impression is that 17 events in 11 days of trials indicates that commercial activity might make the whole vicinity unliveable.
INSANE !
If you live in an area where fracking is or about to take place, there is a strong chance you will not be able to obtain house insurance when your existing insurance runs out.
Check out the latest edition of Going Underground:
https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/442549-budget-austerity-fracking-protests/