Solid Aftershock Shakes Central Virginia in Wake of August Earthquake

Somestimes an earthuake... (0.00 / 0)

...is just an earthquake.

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by: Dave @ Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 02:06:41 AM UTC

The Virginia earthquake was not caused by fracking. (0.00 / 0)

Saying that fracking links to Virginia's earthquakes are "more speculative" is like saying "discussion that President Obama was born in Kenya is more speculative."

The only speculation that I'm aware of is the single DailyKos diary you linked to, which bordered on conspiracy theory (with its Google Earth images of supposed secret fracking sites). Certainly I'm unaware of any geologists "speculating" about a fracking link to the Virginia earthquakes. In fact, in the comments section of the diary you linked to there were several comments from geologists (including me) explaining in some detail why there was no reason to suspect fracking in this instance. It's called the Central Virginia Seismic Zone for a reason; there's abundant evidence for seismic activity in the Virginia Piedmont and Coastal Plain going back at least 50 million years, and probably going back more than 200 million years.

Fracking can cause earthquakes in some settings, as the USGS has shown in the link you provided. Much more significantly, it can cause all kinds of groundwater problems that can result in a cascade of environmental issues, and is probably a practice that should be stopped entirely, or at least restricted to certain geologic settings under tight regulation. But pointing to made-up connections (like the VA earthquakes) does nothing except hurt the credibility of fracking opponents.

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by: hopeful monster @ Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 18:17:24 PM UTC

Speaking of credibility ... (0.00 / 0)

... you may want to tell us who you are before you go talking about credibility.

Read more at TheGreenMiles.com and follow me on Twitter

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by: TheGreenMiles @ Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 18:36:43 PM UTC

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For my on reasons... (0.00 / 0)

...I'm not willing to out myself on a political website. Therefore, you unfortunately can't easily confirm anything I might say about my credentials. For what it's worth, I hold a BA and a PhD in geology, and I've done extensive field work in that part of Virginia over the last 20 years (although my particular area of expertise is not seismology).

Fortunately, there is no need to rely on my credentials on this issue. Several geologists, some of whom are structural geologists, have commented on this earthquake under their own names. For example, both Chuck Bailey at William and Mary and Callan Bentley at NOVA (who maintains the blog Mountain Beltway) have addressed the geology underlying this earthquake.

(Sorry, I don't know how to include links in comments at Blue Virginia. While I've been lurking here since the Raising Kaine days, I only activated my account today to try to address this issue.)

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by: hopeful monster @ Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 22:07:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Or my "own" reasons! (0.00 / 0)

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by: hopeful monster @ Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 23:02:35 PM UTC

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According to (0.00 / 0)

this recent article, you're correct that there's no connection:

Scientists say there is no link between a controversial natural gas drilling technique and the Virginia earthquake that rattled the East Coast in August.

"Let's be very clear: fracking did not cause the Virginia earthquake," said Christopher "Chuck" Bailey, professor and chairman of the geology department at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg.

[...]

The nearest active Marcellus wells to the quake's epicenter in Mineral - about 45 miles northwest of Richmond - are roughly 100 miles away in West Virginia. Bailey and other scientists said those wells could not have induced the 5.8 magnitude temblor.

"It's impossible," said David Spears, a geologist with the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. "The kinds of pressure required to cause something like that can't be transmitted over those distances from fracking."

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by: lowkell @ Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 18:55:30 PM UTC

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Then can we get a retraction or admission? (0.00 / 0)

Irresponsible hyper-advocacy-based pseudoscience like "mentioning" the fracking story on dKos gives the real science a bad name. There's good reason to be concerned about fracking and its connection to small earthquakes, especially those recently identified by a study in OH. All that's accomplished by peddling crap like this is to give the opposition more ammo. Hints and allegations may be the realm of political blogging, but this is data-driven science, and it stands quite well on its own.

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by: Dave @ Wed Feb 01, 2012 at 00:31:54 AM UTC

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