Infrastructure used for oil and gas may be making more earthquakes. In Texas, there 10 times the number of earthquakes now than a few years ago. (photo: Mark Rogers/AP)

Oil, Gas Drilling Seems to Make the Earth Slip and Go Boom

By Mose Buchele, National Public Radio

10 February 14

here's been a surge in earthquakes in the U.S. over the last few years. In Texas, there are 10 times the number of earthquakes now than just a few years ago.

 

Scientists say it's likely linked to the boom in oil and gas activity, meaning that people who never felt the ground shake are starting to.

 

Here's how Pat Jones of Snyder, Texas, describes the earthquake that struck her town in 2010: "It just sounded like some car hit the back of our house. We got up and checked around and we didn't see anything or hear anything else."

 

In 2012 in Alvaredo, Craig Bender called 911 about a quake and told the operator, "There was an explosion-type sound somewhere which kind of concerns me, but I haven't seen anything burning anywhere."

 

In a public forum with state oil and gas regulators, Greg Morrison described the feeling of a quake in Reno as "a semi truck hitting your house with a bomb going off."

 

Outside Texas, people are hearing those booms as well, often in states where there's been an upsurge in drilling and the use of disposal wells to store drilling waste. Scientists have linked those wells to quakes, and some quakes can get loud.

 

"They're actually hearing the wave that traveled through the rock all the way to the Earth's surface," says William Ellsworth, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "When a fault slips suddenly underground, it radiates two different kinds of seismic waves."

 

One is a P wave, an acoustic wave that you can actually hear. The other is an S wave.

 

"It's the wave that carries most of the energy, and it's the one that we typically feel," Ellsworth says.

 

The P wave travels faster than the S wave, so before the ground even starts to shake, people may hear something.

 

"It's a little bit like thunder," he says. "You may see the flash in the distance, and then it takes a while for the wave - the air wave, in this case - to propagate. That makes the boom that you associate with lightening."

 

The U.S. Geological Survey even keeps an online catalog of earthquake noises. They range from a rumbling boom to a sound almost like a bass drum.

 

Most of the quakes in Texas are weak - but those are the kind that make the loudest noise. Ellsworth says stronger quakes often register at a frequency too low for people to hear.

FROM RSN:

[I'm bored with this. How about you?]

Dylan Farrow Responds to Woody Allen, Her Statement

Dylan Farrow, The Hollywood Reporter
Excerpt: "In the response, provided to The Hollywood Reporter, Farrow denounced Allen's op-ed - in which he suggested Farrow's mother, Mia Farrow, had coached her to accuse Allen of sexually
READ MORE

Top Rated College Football Player Comes Out as Gay
Chris Connelly, ESPN
Connelly reports: "Michael Sam, an All-American defensive lineman from Missouri and the Associated Press' SEC Defensive Player of the Year, said that he is gay in an interview with ESPN's 'Outside the Lines' on Sunday."
READ MORE

Charles Pierce | Bad Advice For Hillary Clinton
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "The Democratic 'populism' people so seem to fear is about two years old - a but longer, if you date it from the rise of the Occupy movement - and it hasn't shown yet that it is generally ready to exert power within Democratic politics."
READ MORE

AP Findings on US Military Sex Crimes in Japan
Associated Press
Excerpt: "Hundreds of records detailing sex-crime investigations involving U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan show most offenders were not incarcerated, suspects received light
READ MORE

The Homogeneous Federal Bench
The New York Times | Editorial
Excerpt: "Regrettably, under the Obama administration, federal judges continue to be drawn overwhelmingly from the ranks of prosecutors and corporate lawyers. This deprives the courts of crucial perspectives and reduces public trust in the justice system."
READ MORE

Exonerations On the Rise, and Not Just Because of DNA
Laura Sullivan, National Public Radio
Sullivan reports: "At least 87 people were set free for crimes they did not commit last year, the highest number since researchers began keeping track more than 20 years ago. Some of those
READ MORE

Oil, Gas Drilling Seems to Make the Earth Slip and Go Boom
Mose Buchele, National Public Radio
Buchele reports: "There's been a surge in earthquakes in the U.S. over the last few years. In Texas, there are 10 times the number of earthquakes now than just a few years ago. Scientists say it's likely linked to the boom in oil and gas activity, meaning that people who never felt the ground shake are starting to."
READ MORE