Mysterious Booms and Trembles Plague Wisconsin

[Tia]

I saw this on CNN this morning! Some suspect a "Cutaway to the Craton"? Sure makes one appreciate the dynamic forces of the earth!

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/mysterious-booms-and-trembles-plague-wisconsin-town-baffle-scientists/

By Kevin Dolak

Police, residents and experts are baffled by the source of mysterious booms and shaking that have been plaguing the town of Clintonville, Wis., for the past three days, and have caused some residents to flee.

The Clintonville Police Department said they have received over 250 calls about noises from underground shaking homes in the northeast corner of the town near Green Bay, Wis. with approximately 5000 residents.

The mystery is even stumping some of the brightest minds at the University of Wisconsin, who were consulted about whether or not these booms could be related to seismic activity.

“I think we can rule out that standard earthquake activity, [that] some swarm of earthquakes is happening in that region. It also really looks like it’s not connected to, say, unusual drilling activity or some other kind of real obvious human induced signal, ” Harold Tobin, one of those professors in the Geoscience department at the University of Wisconsin told WKOW.

Tobin headed to Clintonville after he received a call from the Wisconsin Geological Survey office asking for help.

[Bro.David Drake DeLaurento]

I saw this on CNN this morning! Some suspect a "Cutaway to the Craton"? Sure makes one appreciate the dynamic forces of the earth!

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/mysterious-booms-and-trembles-plague-wisconsin-town-baffle-scientists/

By Kevin Dolak

Police, residents and experts are baffled by the source of mysterious booms and shaking that have been plaguing the town of Clintonville, Wis., for the past three days, and have caused some residents to flee.

The Clintonville Police Department said they have received over 250 calls about noises from underground shaking homes in the northeast corner of the town near Green Bay, Wis. with approximately 5000 residents.

The mystery is even stumping some of the brightest minds at the University of Wisconsin, who were consulted about whether or not these booms could be related to seismic activity.

“I think we can rule out that standard earthquake activity, [that] some swarm of earthquakes is happening in that region. It also really looks like it’s not connected to, say, unusual drilling activity or some other kind of real obvious human induced signal, ” Harold Tobin, one of those professors in the Geoscience department at the University of Wisconsin told WKOW.

Tobin headed to Clintonville after he received a call from the Wisconsin Geological Survey office asking for help.

Ive been following Fracking and Earthquakes for a while now and there has been some link. Especially that Wisconsin has numerous fracking sites in the state. In a article posted below it shows more than two dozens sites as of July 31, 2011.

In an Article Posted by [uBy JASON SMATHERS | Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism | Posted: Sunday, July 31, 2011 8:00 am

Title Article: Wisconsin feeding a fracking boom in U.S.

At least 16 frac-sand mines and processing facilities are operating, and an additional 25 sites are proposed, in a diagonal swath stretching across 15 Wisconsin counties from Burnett to Columbia, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has found. Chippewa County has seen the most action, with four companies wanting to operate sand operations.

[...] Several efforts by towns and their residents to block frac-sand mining in Chippewa County have so far failed.

Bruce Brown, a senior geologist with the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, says central and western Wisconsin has a nearly “inexhaustible” supply of the prized Northern White sand, which is sent by rail out West and elsewhere, fetching up to $200 a ton.

Another article points to a correlation between Fracking and Earthquakes.

Internet News by Triple Pundit in an article titled, Fracking Firm Admits It Caused Earthquakes

By RP Siegel | November 11th, 2011

Now, there appears to be another problem. Earthquakes. Given that the geological structures found beneath the ground are the result of dynamic processes and not of intentional design, they are not always as stable as they could possibly be. In some cases, the disturbance caused by the injection of high pressure water jets designed to fracture rock could cause them to collapse. This is apparently what happened at a fracking site near Blackpool, in England. This is not simply the pet theory of some fringe environmental group trying to pin the blame for a natural phenomenon on a company performing operations that they vigorously object to. In fact, it was the fracking company itself, Cuadrilla Resources, who announced after an investigation that, “It is highly probable that the hydraulic fracturing of Cuadrilla’s Preese Hall-1 well did trigger a number of minor seismic events.”

The company went on to say that it was “due to an unusual combination of geology at the well site coupled with the pressure exerted by water injection as part of operations,” and that “this combination of geological factors was extremely rare and would be unlikely to occur together again at future well sites.”

But despite this last claim, the US Geological Survey recently announced findings indicating that fracking operations may have been responsible for as many as 50 earthquakes in Oklahoma last January. Here is an excerpt from the report.

Our analysis showed that shortly after hydraulic fracturing began small earthquakes started occurring, and more than 50 were identified, of which 43 were large enough to be located. Most of these earthquakes occurred within a 24 hour period after hydraulic fracturing operations had ceased.

While the report does not claim to definitively prove the connection (it is still under peer review), it does indicate, “strong correlation in time and space as well as a reasonable fit to a physical model suggest[ing] that there is a possibility these earthquakes were induced by hydraulic fracturing.”

This is not only happening in Blackpool, England but in other areas of the world where Fracturing is taking place. As soon as the Hydraulic Fracking stopped, the earthquakes stopped. One last article. It notes that there is a link between fracking and earthquakes.

In Wild Life News

Fracking causes earthquakes

By Ralph Maughan On March 19, 2012 · ..

Hundreds of thousands of faults, most poorly mapped, just waiting for a bit of lubrication-

We all know what causes earthquakes — preexisting long cracks in rock layers (faults) and enough pressure to make them slip. Most don’t slip very often though. Some will never slip because the pressure is just not, or ever will be great enough to overcome the friction between the two sides of the fault.

Here’s an interesting question. What if the two sides of a fault could be made less rough — slippery? Maybe some grease, oil, or water could somehow get into the fault. That was mostly an academic question until recently. Such things would not get into a fault by natural means. This made earthquakes merely a matter of building pressure from forces in the Earth. Some places, such as near the margins of Continental plates, are subjected to great pressure, year and century-after-century. Other places, such as the middle of a continent where no mountain building is happening, usually have much smaller built-up pressure — places like Ohio, Kansas, Oklahoma

Even some mountainous places, such as Colorado, naturally have few strong earthquakes. Of course, underground California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington and Montana are another matter.

Along comes fracking-

“Induced hydraulic fracturing” (fracking) is the deliberate creation of fractures in a rock layer by introducing some kind of pressurized fluid. The purpose is to drive hydrocarbons (mostly petroleum-like substances or natural gas) out of the rock so it can be pumped to the surface. The discovery of large areas where such rock exists potentially greatly extends the amount of oil, and especially natural gas that might be recovered. More and more natural gas is being promoting as a “bridge fuel” to get us from today’s fairly dirty mix of energy sources to the Eden of renewable energy sources.

Cynics, or perhaps realists, doubt whether the government ever really intends to get off “the bridge.” Meanwhile a boom is underway, and the price of natural gas, which some inattentive folks seem to think is gasoline, is going down as its supply increases.

President Obama seems convinced it is a good fuel, superior to the toxic, thick, bitumen obtained from the huge open pit mines in the tar sands of Alberta. Republicans like it too, with the recent Idaho scandal not all that atypical of boom in fracking.

What about earthquakes?

Most concern about side effects of fracking has been about water pollution, but it is an easy thought process to suppose that injection of fluids to deliberately fracture rock might cause earthquakes. Of course, the amount of fluid injected is usually small, though there are exceptions.

What is not small is the amount of waste fluid injected down the deep wastewater wells near a fracking field. Already hundreds of small, and some moderate earthquakes have happened in otherwise seismically stable areas of Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

Good analysis of the underlying rock of proposed fracking areas might minimize the potential of earthquakes. Some beds of rock have few faults while those just above or below a stable bed might have many. Knowing where to drill, not just to obtain natural gas, but to ascertain the effects of new fluid on the entire underground structure should be very useful. Some potential sources of gas might be too unstable to develop. In fact, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has prohibited wastewater injection wells from an area of over 1000 square miles that sits atop productive shale deposits. This came after earthquakes started subsequent to the beginning of fracking.

This all comes down to Revelation 11:18. . .But the nations became wrathful, and your own wrath came, and the appointed time for the dead to be judged, and to give [their] reward to your slaves the prophets and to the holy ones and to those fearing your name, the small and the great, and to bring to ruin those ruining the earth.”

[Tia]

Brother David,

I honestly had no idea what fracking was until a sister brought it up on one of her studies that I attended. I started following "fracking" out of curiosity last year! After viewing how much it was done in areas and surrounding NJ states! Just recently the Gov. Christie of New Jersey ban it! result N.J. Senate panel bill approval for banning it!

After messing up much in NJ and surrounding states! Interesting article you post above!

[Greenfield]

I remember seeing a show on fracking. It certainly is something I would prefer not be in my area.

At least 16 frac-sand mines and processing facilities are operating, and an additional 25 sites are proposed, in a diagonal swath stretching across 15 Wisconsin counties from Burnett to Columbia, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has found. Chippewa County has seen the most action, with four companies wanting to operate sand operations.

Based on this description, it isn't near where a lot of the state's population lives in the two big metro areas of Madison and Milwaukee. Good.

[ava]

Fracking has been going on in TX too where I live. There have been some minor earthquakes in the area.

[Bro.David Drake DeLaurento]

News reports coming in daily that says that these are definitely earthquakes.

[Tia]

Bro. David,

Thank you! I had forgotten about the booms - until reading replies!~ Going to check them out!