Oklahoma is having 600 times more earthquakes than they did in 2008. If you guessed the reason was oil drilling, give yourself a pat on the back.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

The onslaught of seismic activity in Oklahoma in recent years has captured the attention of the nation. 

State scientists say they have uncovered the root cause of the majority of the state’s earthquakes: the oil and gas industry’s disposal of billions of barrels of water underground. 

Now, as the public absorbs this information, Oklahoma’s regulatory bodies are keeping a watchful eye on these disposal wells and planning their next moves. 

On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) issued its most strongly worded statement yet linking the oil and gas industry to the state’s earthquakes. 

State geologist Richard D. Andrews and state seismologist Austin Holland say the spike in earthquakes — particularly in central and north-central areas of the state — is “very unlikely to represent a naturally occurring process.” 

“The primary suspected source of triggered seismicity is not from hydraulic fracturing but from the injection/disposal of water associated with oil and gas production,” the report from the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) reads. 

The seismicity rate in Oklahoma is about 600 times greater than it was before 2008, around the time dewatering started in the state.

Just last year, 585 magnitude 3+ earthquakes hit Oklahoma — compared with 109 in 2013.

Interestingly enough I wrote on this same exact problem in Oklahoma back in 2014, at which time I pointed out that the 30 year average before fracking came to the state was two earthquakes that were 3.0 or higher PER YEAR.

So here we are a year later and the problem has become exponentially worse. In fact it is getting so bad that if things continue at this rate the state of Oklahoma will never stop shaking. 

But you know I am sure it's all worth it because, you know, cheap oil.

I think this might be a good place to point out that harnessing wind energy does not result in earthquakes, and harnessing the energy of the sun is unlikely to shake you out of your bed at three o'clock in the morning.

Just saying.

Oklahoma had a 30 year average of two small earthquakes per year. In 2013 they had 109 of much greater force. The reason? Fracking.

Courtesy of the LA Times: 

When Austin Holland was being considered for his job as the sole seismologist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey in 2009, his interviewer posed a wry question: "Are you going to be able to entertain yourself as a seismologist in Oklahoma?" 

Back then, the state had a 30-year average of only two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher per year. As it turns out, though, boredom has been the least of Holland's concerns. Over the last five years, the state has had thousands of earthquakes — an unprecedented increase that has made it the second-most seismically active state in the continental United States, behind California. 

The state had 109 temblors measuring 3.0 or greater in 2013 — more than 5,000% above normal. There have already been more than 200 earthquakes this year, Holland said. 

Scientists have never observed such a dramatic swarm of earthquakes "in what's considered a stable continental interior," Holland said. "Whatever we're looking at, it's completely unprecedented." 

Oklahoma has always had the potential for earthquakes; it has a complex underlying fault system. But until recently, the most powerful quake of the modern era was a 5.5-magnitude temblor in 1952 that left a 15-meter crack in the state Capitol. 

Scientists say the more likely cause of the recent increase is underground injection wells drilled by the oil and gas industry. About 80% of the state is within nine miles of an injection well, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey.

Of course Oklahoma is not alone. Texas is experiencing the exact same problem.

And in fact so are just about every state where fracking is taking place. 

This is my first post of the day folks, and I am going to post all kinds of information today.

But to be honest I am not sure that anything else I am going to share is going to be as important as this story is, so please help to spread this information far and wide.

We are literally shaking our planet to pieces in the attempt to dredge up fossil fuels and inject them into our atmosphere in order to destroy our climate. These are the actions of the clinically insane.

Geophysicists link fracking to increased number of earthquakes.

Courtesy of the Daily Item:  

The swarm of earthquakes went on for months in North Central Texas, rattling homes, with reports of broken water pipes and cracked walls and locals blaming the shudders on the hydraulic fracturing boom that’s led to skyrocketing oil and gas production around the nation. 

Darlia Hobbs, who lives on Eagle Mountain Lake, about a dozen miles from Fort Worth, said that more than 30 quakes had hit from November to January. 

“We have had way too many earthquakes out here because of the fracking and disposal wells,“ she said in an interview. 

While the dispute over the cause remains, leading geophysicists are now saying Hobbs and other residents might be right to point the finger at oil and gas activities. 

“It is certainly possible, and in large part that is based on what else we’ve seen in the Fort Worth basin in terms of the rise of earthquakes since 2008,“ William Ellsworth, a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist, said. 

Ellsworth said the Dallas-Fort Worth region previously had just a single known earthquake, in 1950. 

Since 2008, he said, there have been more than 70 big enough to feel. Those include earthquakes at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport that scientists linked to a nearby injection well. 

Ellsworth briefed his colleagues on his findings Thursday at the Seismological Society of America’s annual meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. 

Researchers also are investigating links between quakes in Kansas, Oklahoma, Ohio and elsewhere to oil and gas activities. USGS seismologist Art McGarr said it was clear that deep disposal of drilling waste was responsible for at least some of the earthquakes in the heartland.

Well gee now we can have not only flammable tap water,  and virtually impossible to clean up oil spills, we can also have dramatically increased earthquakes and possibly millions of dollar in property damage.

Gee isn't relying on fossil fuels fun?