(Interesting commentary below by an Oklahoma geologist. If only an earthquake hot spot would develop under the Oklahoma State Capitol. Since the article said the elderly are living in constant fear of them, I'm so glad my mother says she hardly ever senses them. I think it has to do with Stillwater being fortunate from not being in one the hottest spots for quakes. Hopefully it stays that way.)
BY BOB JACKMAN
The list of man-made disasters puts the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown at No. 1.
Today, as the holidays near, the question on the minds of 500,000 or more Oklahoma homeowners and renters is this: Will central and north central Oklahoma’s seemingly unstoppable earthquakes let loose a Richter magnitude 5.0 or greater one?
Oklahoma’s petroleum industry disposal wells do have the potential to create a high magnitude earthquake during 2015 holidays. If that happens, will Oklahoma be included on Google’s worldwide list of the 25 worst man-made disasters?
There is some hope this will not happen. However, Gov. Mary Fallin, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission [OCC] and our earthquake areas’ oil producers do not get an ounce of credit for this ray of hope. That credit belongs to the abrupt market decline in prices of crude oil and natural gas which in turn causes less of the briny waste waters to be injected in disposal wells.
The low prices and oil production slowdowns are illustrated by one field near Glencoe, OK. Currently two pumpers on 46 pumping oil wells are only switching on several hours each day, compared to the around-the-clock pumping when crude prices were $100 per barrel.
The oil produced in quake prone areas like Glencoe, north of Stillwater, has ratio of one oil barrel per 10 barrels of brine. This slowdown drastically cuts down high volumes injected in disposal wells causing quakes. And we are seeing some declines in oilmen-made earthquakes in the last 60 days.
Word of caution: Oklahoma is still on an upward track for total of 850 magnitude 3.0-plus earthquakes in 2015 versus 585 magnitude 3.0-plus quakes in 2014.
Yesterday, the year’s highest magnitude – magnitude 4.7 – occurred near Cherokee. The internal subsurface stress of literally billions of barrels of heavy saltwater injected since mid-2000s in north central Oklahoma has built-up enormous pressure – mega tons pushing against and into known and unknown deep ancient faults. This rapidly causes earthquakes.
Scientific evidence clearly shows earthquakes can continue as long as a year or more after disposal wells stop injecting.
Think of it this way: Stretch a rubber band extra tight around a vase and set it out of sight. Constant strain weakens the rubber’s micro-links. So when will it snap?
Remember the oil industry is not messing around with underground big rubber bands; they are teasing sleeping earthquake giants.
Seismicity [earthquake] scientists – especially government ones – avoid speaking bluntly on causes and effects of Oklahoma’s six-year earthquake-epidemic.
Add to that Oklahoma’s petroleum industry-employed geo-scientists, who are hanging on to their jobs and dare not say anything conflicting with OIPA or OCC’s spin-of-the-week.
Rarely – but sometimes – a state scientist blurts out the harsh truth!
On Nov. 10, at the Governors’ Energy Conference, panelist Dr. Mark D. Zoback, a Stanford-based seismicity consultant to the Oklahoma Geological Survey, disclosed that injecting into the Arbuckle formation has quake-causing problems.
Earthquake-suffering citizens of Oklahoma can add one more to the OCC’s ongoing fairy tales – that it’s safe injecting into the Arbuckle. The Oklahoma Observer [May 2015, page 14] was the first to disclose that due to the interconnectedness of the Arbuckle with basement granite, injecting in the formation is not a solution but a cause of quakes.
After enduring years of shaking and hard knocks, one city official in Medford – the Quake Capital of Oklahoma – has actually become a human seismicity monitor! She can accurately tell from horizontal and vertical variations of earthquake jolts at night in her bed whether a particular earthquake is caused by, in geological terms, a Normal Fault or a Strike-Slip Fault.
She tells of a recent overnight visit by her son and daughter-in-law who experienced 14 quakes in 24 hours.
“We are scared and leaving right now!” they said the next morning.
Her complaints echo others interviewed, including several local fire chiefs.
“Living this way is not acceptable. Quake damages are both physical and psychological. The anxiety of living in Medford or Glencoe is like being in a war zone. When will the next big one hit?” said one.
The elderly report living in constant fear of earthquakes. The Enid News reported damage to schools and homes in northwestern Oklahoma. People interviewed are concerned their homes and commercial property values will drop sharply if placed in the Red Zone of the new USGS Oklahoma Earthquake Hazard Map to be released in April 2016.
Who wants to move to and buy a home in one of Oklahoma’s high earthquake counties?
Back at Oklahoma’s Capitol: For six years now, other than Gov. Fallin’s infamous advice that “people with earthquake damages should buy insurance,” not one person in the many OCC press releases, at government-sponsored quake conferences or on panels stacked with pro-petroleum industry representatives ever expressed concern over peoples’ earthquake damages.
The OCC’s spokesperson, Matt Skinner, did say recently that “magnitude 5.0-plus is the awful number.”
Really? That’s the best OCC elected Commissioners can do after years of spending taxpayers’ money reporting over and over again that “we are working on earthquake problems but need more data and studies”?
If they were Wal-Mart we would demand our money back. It reminds of Merle Haggard’s song, If We Make It Through December.
– Bob Jackman is a petroleum geologist living in Tulsa and a frequent contributor to The Oklahoma Observer.
FROM:
http://okobserver.net/disposal-wells-and-chernobyl-ok/