Current:Home > MarketsEven in California, Oil Drilling Waste May Be Spurring Earthquakes-LoTradeCoin
Even in California, Oil Drilling Waste May Be Spurring Earthquakes
View Date:2024-12-23 21:21:08
A new study suggests a series of moderate earthquakes that shook California’s oil hub in September 2005 was linked to the nearby injection of waste from the drilling process deep underground.
Until now, California was largely ignored by scientific investigations targeting the connection between oil and gas activity and earthquakes. Instead, scientists have focused on states that historically did not have much earthquake activity before their respective oil and gas industries took off, such as Oklahoma and Texas.
Oklahoma’s jarring rise in earthquakes started in 2009, when the state’s oil production boom began. But earthquakes aren’t new to California, home to the major San Andreas Fault, as well as thousands of smaller faults. California was the top state for earthquakes before Oklahoma snagged the title in 2014.
All the natural shaking activity in California “makes it hard to see” possible man-made earthquakes, said Thomas Göebel, a geologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Göebel is the lead author of the study published last week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Although the study did not draw any definitive conclusions, it began to correlate earthquake activity with oil production.
Göebel and his colleagues focused their research on a corner of Kern County in southern California, the state’s hotspot of oil production and related waste injection. The scientists collected data on the region’s earthquake activity and injection rates for the three major nearby waste wells from 2001-2014, when California’s underground waste disposal operations expanded dramatically.
Using a statistical analysis, the scientists identified only one potential sequence of man-made earthquakes. It followed a new waste injection well going online in Kern County in May 2005. Operations there scaled up quickly, from the processing of 130,000 barrels of waste in May to the disposal of more than 360,000 barrels of waste in August.
As the waste volumes went up that year, so did the area’s earthquake activity. On September 22, 2005, a magnitude 4.5 event struck less than 10 kilometers away from the well along the White Wolf Fault. Later that day, two more earthquakes with magnitudes greater than 4.0 struck the same area. No major damage was reported.
Did that waste well’s activity trigger the earthquakes? Göebel said it’s possible, noting that his team’s analysis found a strong correlation between the waste injection rate and seismicity. He said additional modeling paints a picture of how it could have played out, with the high levels of injected waste spreading out along deep underground cracks, altering the surrounding rock formation’s pressure and ultimately causing the White Wolf Fault to slip and trigger earthquakes.
“It’s a pretty plausible interpretation,” Jeremy Boak, a geologist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey, told InsideClimate News. “The quantities of [waste] water are large enough to be significant” and “certainly capable” of inducing an earthquake, Boak told InsideClimate News.
Last year, researchers looking at seismicity across the central and eastern part of the nation found that wells that disposed of more than 300,000 barrels of waste a month were 1.5 times more likely to be linked to earthquakes than wells with lower waste disposal levels.
In the new study, Göebel and his colleagues noted that the well’s waste levels dropped dramatically in the months following the earthquakes. Such high waste disposal levels only occurred at that well site again for a few months in 2009; no earthquakes were observed then.
“California’s a pretty complicated area” in its geology, said George Choy from the United States Geological Survey. These researchers have “raised the possibility” of a man-made earthquake swarm, Choy said, but he emphasized that more research is needed to draw any conclusions.
California is the third largest oil-producing state, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
There are currently no rules in California requiring operators to monitor the seismic activity at liquid waste injection wells, according to Don Drysdale, a spokesman for the California Department of Conservation.
State regulators have commissioned the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to study the potential for wastewater injection to trigger earthquakes in California oilfields; the study results are due in December, according to Drysdale.
veryGood! (386)
Related
- Former North Carolina labor commissioner becomes hospital group’s CEO
- Dozens indicted over NYC gang warfare that led to the deaths of four bystanders
- Today Reveals Hoda Kotb's Replacement
- Jake Paul's only loss led him to retool the team preparing him to face Mike Tyson
- Burt Bacharach, composer of classic songs, will have papers donated to Library of Congress
- More than 150 pronghorns hit, killed on Colorado roads as animals sought shelter from snow
- 'Wanted' posters plastered around University of Rochester target Jewish faculty members
- Study finds Wisconsin voters approved a record number of school referenda
- Lee Zeldin, Trump’s EPA Pick, Brings a Moderate Face to a Radical Game Plan
- 'Dangerous and unsanitary' conditions at Georgia jail violate Constitution, feds say
Ranking
- McDonald's Version: New Bestie Bundle meals celebrate Swiftie friendship bracelets
- Tech consultant spars with the prosecutor over details of the death of Cash App founder Bob Lee
- Jennifer Hudson, Kylie Minogue and Billy Porter to perform at Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade
- 'Dangerous and unsanitary' conditions at Georgia jail violate Constitution, feds say
- 'Yellowstone's powerful opening: What happened to Kevin Costner's John Dutton?
- Burger King's 'Million Dollar Whopper' finalists: How to try and vote on your favorite
- J.Crew Outlet Quietly Drops Their Black Friday Deals - Save Up to 70% off Everything, Styles Start at $12
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chancellor to step down at end of academic year
Recommendation
-
Judge sets date for 9/11 defendants to enter pleas, deepening battle over court’s independence
-
Halle Berry Rocks Sheer Dress She Wore to 2002 Oscars 22 Years Later
-
Mason Bates’ Met-bound opera ‘Kavalier & Clay’ based on Michael Chabon novel premieres in Indiana
-
Wisconsin agency issues first round of permits for Enbridge Line 5 reroute around reservation
-
Are Ciara Ready and Russell Wilson Ready For Another Baby? She Says…
-
Brianna LaPaglia Addresses Zach Bryan's Deafening Silence After Emotional Abuse Allegations
-
Jason Kelce Offers Up NSFW Explanation for Why Men Have Beards
-
Shawn Mendes Confesses He and Camila Cabello Are No Longer the Closest