The OGS still does “not fully understand” what’s causing the Edmond earthquakes…
The TV head pictured above is Crystal Price. She's a reporter for KOCO Channel 5. She's only been at the station since January and is brand new to the Oklahoma City media market, therefore, we should probably give her a pass for thinking the Oklahoma Geological Survey would be able to add any insight or clarity to her report about what caused the recent batch of earthquakes that struck near Edmond.
Seriously, check this crazy stuff out:
OGS officials unclear on what exactly is triggering swarm of metro quakes
More than 10 earthquakes rattled the Oklahoma City metro area on Tuesday.
A 3.9 magnitude earthquake shook the Edmond area around Interstate 35 and Covell Road just before 3 a.m.
Many residents who live in Fairfax Estates told KOCO the earthquake woke them from their sleep Tuesday morning.
“It woke me up and I was just praying there was no more damage,” said Dawne Sullivan, a resident in Fairfax Estates.
Sullivan said she has suffered thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to her home as a result of the recent earthquakes.
Fortunately, she said there was no damage this time around.
The geologists with the Oklahoma Geological Survey said they do not fully understand what has caused the recent swarm of quakes.
Yep, you know these earthquake swarms that scientists from all over the country say have been caused by wastewater injection wells? The Oklahoma Geological Survey still doesn't understand what's causing them. I'm cool with that. They're probably just waiting until they have coffee with Harold Hamm and David Boren to figure out the answer, which I'm going to go out on a limb and say has something to do with the rising and falling water levels of Lake Arcadia.
Seriously, isn't this ridiculous? Did they forget about this April paper where the OGS determined "the majority of recent earthquakes in central and north-central Oklahoma are very likely triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells." Or, do we have a case of the local media doing their thing and taking a few soundbites out of context to get better ratings?
Check out the rest of the story and decide for yourself:
“That’s really an impressive number of earthquakes in a very small area,” said Rick Andrews, associate director and petroleum geologist for the Oklahoma Geological Survey. “Water seems to be the basic culprit, but exactly how water triggers an earthquake when it is disposed, we really don’t know that.”...
I'm not a scientist by any means, but isn't that something you'd probably "want to understand" before pumping billions of gallons of water deep within our earth? Once again, you're telling me the brilliant regulation-hating "innovators" who work for Devon, Chesapeake or New Dominion had no clue that even minor earthquakes were a possibility?
"Hey guys. Out of curiosity, what happens if the wastewater somehow reaches fault lines and causes earthquakes? If that's the case, wouldn't we... Hey, wait. What's going on?! Why am I strapped to the chair. Hey, I can't move! What are you doing? Get your hands off me. Wait... wait... Are those lions?"
Whether it's through the Sierra Club's lawsuit or a whistleblower, I wouldn't be shocked to find out the earthquake issue was brought up by someone from somewhere, and our energy leaders and the people at the OGS totally covered it up.
Here's the rest of the story:
“We don’t know if it goes into the crystal basement like some people think and triggers faults or earthquakes, and we don’t know if it travels horizontally or even vertically,” Andrews said.
He added that there are not a whole lot of disposal wells in the area – so the water may travel for miles underground before it triggers a quake.
The OGS is hoping the recent grant from the governor will help it better understand what is triggering the swarm of quakes.
No lie, we could send Jesus Christ, Gary England and Chuck Norris deep underneath our earth, have them take photos of wastewater lubricating long dormant fault lines, and the OGS still would still "need more time" to "better understand" the issue. Hopefully there's still an Edmond left when that happens.
Stay in touch
Sign up for our free newsletter
