Unthreaded
If we put the same monitors at the base of giant wind turbines, what would they read ?
Would it be called "earthquakes" ?
How many fracking tremor deaths have there been in the US ?
... well shut up then
stewgreen
Tomo pray tell us when you stop using the word "earthquake" for low intensity events that are generated in exactly the same way as damaging earthquakes? Don't you think deliberately using a different word might obscure any possible risk of a possible future more damaging quake? I don't recall hearing a news item on Lancashire seismicity (even from the BBC) that hasn't been accompanied by a statement about their relative indetectability.
Your comment regarding geophones being able to detect footfalls is also misleading because microearthquakes can be detected over areas of square kilometres, whereas, from my experience helping students with their geophysics undergraduate projects, footfalls can only be detected at distances of less than 10 metres.
Supertroll
st
fracking is splitting rock.... it seems quite unlikely that can be done silently :-)
Where the safety issue lies must be in triggering the release of accumulated stress along a line of weakness or a prexisting fault. The limited microseismic I have seen seems quite good at imaging the frack zone. There is always a chance that a fault might slip without some precursor sounds but sensibly the gas folk don't want that to mess up their manifold and will avoid where possible.
Caution informed by geophysics is prudent operating practice in drilling - the media reporting of all this driven by eco nut press release recycling is just crap.
tomo
Ross. A small tremor might well be an indication that increasing the subsurface overpressure could generate an even stronger seismic event. Conversely it might indicate that any latent stress has been released by the fracking. You don't know, I don't, and no-one does. So perhaps the wisest course of action is to await developments and after a period of time resume (carefully).
Supertroll
Using the term "earthquake" to describe what's been seen in Lancashire is massively overstating the case. The drilling itself would likely have been a lot "louder". Geophones can easily detect human footfalls.
The traffic light system adopted for the fracking process itself was deliberately set to be restrictive in normal operations - obstructive even.
From gossip / rumor I heard some 2 years back eco-activists in DECC were internally active in seeking to contrive hurdles in seismic, water quality and metane release - far beyond restrictions placed on other industrial processes. Said activists were purportedly attempting to intervene tiers above the actual risk evaluation. The truth about eco-secondments has been serially avoided by both DECC and BEIS.
tomo
That should be is not if sorry, I suspect those who set up a super sensitive system just there had an agenda.
Ross Lea
Stoping work for a very very minor earth tremmor if fracking nonsence. What idiot set the level so low ?
Ross Lea
GolfCharlie. Do you think you could detect "a doubledecker bus rumbling past, with Ann Widdecombe doing a Rumba on the roof, whilst a stuntman jumps both with a noisy motorbike"? Never having experienced such an event myself, I am unable to judge. However, I read that the Lancashire seismic events have, so far, been undetectable by humans at the surface- even those lying down. In BBC terms, an earthquake is an earthquake, and totally unacceptable in these fair isles.
Supertroll
What"s wrong with calling individual seismic events of low intensity "earthquakes"
Oct 27, 2018 at 1:07 PM | Supertroll
In Politics, General Election results can be described as Landslides.
Some Politicians might object to being described as mobile seismic events, or earthquakes of low intensity.
golf charlie
Supertroll, aren't these "earthquakes" exactly what was Intended by the hydraulic fracturing process? If they are being monitored, isn't this just the sort of evidence that the fracking industry has been denied the opportunity of obtaining, in order to prove the very low risk that results?
If this is exactly the sort of damage the activists have warned about, then the conclusion must be that it causes no more damage than a solitary tree falling down if no one is there to watch it, hear it or sense it.
Either way, Frack On! Hopefully some Shale Gas will be produced. Meanwhile, wind turbines still mince birds, but are unreliable for other purposes, and we don't know about the effects of their bad vibrations on worms or whales.