Energy Environmental Blog

"Induced Seismicity"

Written by Greg Russell | Apr 21, 2012 7:10:21 PM

That's the term used to describe minor seismic events attributed to human activity.   Recently, a number of news articles have characterized an abstract of a soon-to-be-published USGS (i.e., U.S. Geological Survey) report as linking minor earthquake events to hydraulic fracturing - i.e., induced seismicity.  Responding to those articles, Deputy Secretary Hayes of the U.S. Department of the Interior wrote in a DOI blog post:  "USGS’s studies do not suggest that hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as 'fracking,' causes the increased rate of earthquakes."  (Emphasis is ours.)  Rather, "USGS’s scientists have found, however, that at some locations the increase in seismicity coincides with the injection of wastewater in deep disposal wells."

Read the whole thing.  (Who knew the DOI blogged?)