Arkansas Is Shaken By Earthquakes Around Shale Drilling Operations

Formerly mostly earthquake-free Arkansas has been doing some shaking of late.

This shaking coming after letting Chesapeake Energy, and others, poke a lot of holes in the Arkansas Fayetteville Shale.

It seems each time the earth quakes in these areas getting drilled it's like a mystery whether or not there is a correlation.

Steve Horton, an earthquake specialist at the University of Memphis and hydrologic technician with the U.S. Geological Survey, is worried by a correlation between the Arkansas earthquake swarm and a side effect of the drilling: the disposal of wastewater in injection wells.

"Ninety percent of these earthquakes, that have happened since 2009, have been within 6 kilometers of these salt water disposal wells. The timing is too coincidental to ignore," Horton said.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 4.7-magnitude quake at 11 p.m. Sunday, centered just northeast of Greenbrier, about 40 miles north of Little Rock. It was the largest of more than 800 quakes to strike the area since September in what is now being called the Guy-Greenbrier earthquake swarm.

Despite earthquakes shaking in pretty much all the areas where shale drilling and fracturing is taking place, there are still legions of drillers being the cause deniers.

From an article about the Arkansas quakes, "Scientists are slow to draw conclusions on any subject, and despite years of speculation, there is still little consensus about whether the practice is contributing to the quakes."

The same lack of consensus regarding drilling caused quakes exists here in Texas.

In 2009, the small town of Cleburne, Texas, experienced the first recorded earthquake in Cleburne's 140-year history, quickly followed by another four shortly afterwards. Many experiencing the shaking quickly concluded the Barnett Shale drilling was causing it.

"I think John Q. Public thinks there is a correlation with drilling," Cleburne Mayor, Ted Reynolds, said. "We haven't had a quake in recorded history, and all the sudden you drill and there are earthquakes."

Yeah, it really is a big puzzle and mystery as to what is causing all the earthquakes where, previously, the earth stood fairly still.

Another Quake Strikes Cleburne

I don't think I've mentioned the last couple Cleburne quakes. When something unusual starts seeming like the same old thing, over and over again, it tends to start to seem less noteworthy. But it shouldn't. All these earthquakes, where previously the ground did not shake, is disturbing.

This morning's 2.0 ground cracker shook about 27 miles south of Fort Worth, a bit before 7 this morning.

Last week, up near where I lived in Washington, there was a 3 or 4 point quake. I am almost absolutely certain the Washington earthquake was not caused by Barnett Shale gas drilling.

The Dallas Cowboys have banned drilling under their new $1 billion plus stadium because the thing weighs 805 million pounds. Earthquakes could do all sorts of bad things to the stadium. Or it could sink into a giant sinkhole, like they have in Wink.

So, Don Young raised a very interesting point. How much do all the buildings in downtown Fort Worth weigh? Drilling is taking place under downtown Fort Worth. People live and work in downtown Fort Worth. If drilling is too dangerous for a seldom used football stadium, should not an equally cautious policy be in place to protect downtown Fort Worth and those who live and work there?

It's perplexing.