Blog Description

Fraccing With Two C's is a blog focused on the highly controversial topic of hydraulic fracturing stimulation in the oil and gas industry. The title of this blog stems from the slang term for hydraulic fracturing as it is spelled in the oil and gas industry, which differs from that commonly used in the media and by the general public, 'fracking'. Fracture stimulation is also commonly referred to as fracing, but at Colorado School of Mines the Petroleum Engineering Department generally spells the slang term with two c's.

This blog will address some of the concerns, misconceptions, and recent news on this topic. Though personal opinions are present, we will remain factual and provide evidence for all discussions. We welcome comments of all sorts, whether they agree or disagree with our opinions, as long as they are appropriate for a classroom setting, since this is a project for a science communication course.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Stressing Earthquakes


Most everyone has heard about the San Andreas Fault, but have you heard about any of the earthquakes, minor and major, that occur in the surrounding area?  Ever wondered what is making the earthquakes happen and whether these reasons are natural or human made from activities such as drilling and hydraulic fraccing?  Earthquakes catch people’s attention whether it is from the fascination of wondering what one feels like or whether it’s from personal experience being in one.



Jeanne L. Hardebeck and Egill Hauksson wrote a report on the reasons earthquakes occur near faults from repeated strain related fracturing and crack sealing that causes fluids to be trapped within low permeability barriers in the rock.  The fluids trapped within a zone in the rock create high fluid pressure that cannot be released from the low permeability barriers.  The high fluid pressures cause the major stresses in the rock to rotate and change angles which can eventually increase the fault and/ or cause an earthquake from localized strain accumulation.


The Angle Change of Major Stresses According to Distance from the Fault

Testing has been done both in the field and in the lab to come to the conclusion that the high fluid pressures with strain accumulation and change in stress angles can cause the fault.  So how is this relating to the petroleum industry and hydraulic fraccing?  There have been elevated fluid pressures found near the San Andreas Fault during a drilling project close to the site.  The report shows no evidence of clear blame on the drilling sites, but people will assume this is true based on that statement. 

Drilling and hydraulic fraccing without regulations can cause major faults and earthquakes to occur, but many regulations are in place with more being added as technology improves.  One regulation that protects people in the surrounding area is that drilling cannot occur within a certain distance of any residence with the distance being different based on the size of the drilling project.  For hydraulic fraccing the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has a regulation that makes all projects stay at least two kilometers away from any town site and 500 meters from an environmentally sensitive site.  With these regulations, along with increasing technology, hydraulic fraccing is a safe process that should not propose any problems with earthquakes to any residence.  

- Adam

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