Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Oklahoma Now No. 1 in Earthquakes


Chad Devereaux repairs his in-laws' home in Sparks, Oklahoma, after two earthquakes hit the area in less than 24 hours.
Photo: Sue Ogrocki/AP/Corbis

By Eric Levitz
November 11, 2015 12:45 p.m.

Oklahoma may be only No. 12 [ http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/rankings/2015/11/10/college-football-playoff-rankings-clemson-alabama-ohio-state-notre-dame-iowa/75536534/ ] in college football this year, but the Sooner State is now No. 1 in earthquakes.

A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission — a regulatory body tasked with ensuring the safety of oil and gas exploration in the state — told the Enid Rotary Club that Oklahoma now experiences more earthquakes than anywhere else on planet Earth.

"We have had 15 [earthquakes] in Medford since 5 o'clock Saturday morning," spokesman Matt Skinner said Monday, according to the Enid News [ http://www.enidnews.com/news/local_news/oklahoma-world-s-no-earthquake-area/article_69b145b8-c180-5065-8f99-b2a7ec7ce913.html ]. “We’ve got an earthquake issue.”

That won’t be news to most Okies. Before the fracking boom kicked off in 2008, Oklahoma experienced an average of one to two earthquakes of 3.0 magnitude or higher per year. In 2014, the state was rattled by 585. As Rivka Galchen noted in The New Yorker [ http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/13/weather-underground ] in April, man-made earthquakes have become so common in the state, local weathermen often report the day’s seismic events along with the temperature.

The largest earthquakes are predominately caused by disposal wells, where the brackish water brought to the surface by oil and gas drilling is injected back into the earth, often by the billions of gallons. The OCC has cracked down on wells that are deemed hazardously deep, forcing 500 such wells to undergo changes in recent years. Before this past weekend, those directives seemed to have produced a small reduction in the overall earthquake rate.

"Now, this weekend may have blown that out of the water, I don't know," Skinner told the Enid News. "Again, based on the data, it would appear that even if you do the right thing, it's going to take a long time. There's no quick off switch."

Copyright © 2015, New York Media LLC

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/oklahoma-now-no-1-in-earthquakes.html [with comments]


--


OKLAHOMA EARTHQUAKES
Oklahoma is becoming a hotbed for earthquakes, and this special coverage page maps out every earthquake that happens in Oklahoma.
http://newsok.com/earthquakes [with many related articles linked]


--


Oklahoma's earthquake increase is now matter of national security

By Steve Bottari
UPDATED 6:33 AM CST Nov 10, 2015

CUSHING, Okla. — A 4.5-magnitude earthquake rocked Cushing on Oct. 10. It could be felt as far away as Oklahoma City, some 75 miles to the south.

Viewer after viewer called the KOCO newsroom to report that they, too, felt the shaking.

At least one building had the bricks ripped right off its side, photos would later reveal. No injuries were reported.

That was just the latest in what's been a record year of seismic activity in the state.

Five years ago, Oklahoma saw just a handful of earthquakes greater than 3.0, United States Geological Survey data shows. Last year, that number skyrocketed to 585. This year is already topping that.

Cushing, in particular, has seen a fair amount of sizable earthquakes, with five registering about 4.0 within the last year.

Cushing is of particular concern because of what's located there: vast amounts of oil. More than 80 million barrels worth is stored there, flowing in and out of the town through more than a dozen pipelines.

The Department of Homeland Security has deemed Cushing "critical infrastructure." Wall Street traders closely watch the oil hub's activity as a bellwether for the health of the oil market.

All of the shaking has gotten the attention of the financial world, the state and federal governments, and the science community.

Scientists with the USGS recently published a paper citing concerns with Cushing and a fault located underneath it, with the capability to "produce a large, damaging earthquake comparable to the 2011 Prague event."

The Prague earthquake was the strongest ever recorded in Oklahoma. It cracked foundations, crumbled brick faces and toppled chimneys.

What would an earthquake of that size do in Cushing?

Mapped scenarios from the Department of Homeland Security show "shaking ... could seriously damage storage tanks and pipelines in the Cushing facility," according to the scientists who authored the paper.

The oil companies located in Cushing told KOCO that those oil tanks -- some built as early as the 1920s -- are built to federal standards and undergo rigorous inspections. Every 10 years the tanks are completely emptied of oil and repaired.

Should a tank rupture from an earthquake or other problem, "These tanks all have an earth berm around them," said Michael Moeller, who oversees the largest of the 14 oil companies in Cushing, Enbridge Energy. "It's designed to hold all of the contents plus 10 percent, assuming a catastrophic failure."

That would hold all of the oil in place for a cleanup crew, Moeller said, averting major environmental problems and limiting the risk to the public.

All of the tanks and pipelines are monitored by a staff around the clock in a state-of-the-art control room.

"We have a procedure in place that if an earthquake does occur, our control center located on-site goes into the USGS data and sees the peak particle acceleration, and if it meets a certain threshold, they’ll ask the other staff on-site 24/7 to do an inspection of the facilities."

To date, Enbridge says none of their Cushing tanks, storing some 20 million barrels of oil, has experienced any damage from earthquakes.

In light of the increase in seismic activity, the company is planning an earthquake emergency exercise next year to prepare for the possibility.

© 2015, Ohio/Oklahoma Hearst Television Inc. on behalf of KOCO-TV

http://www.koco.com/news/could-cushings-oil-tanks-and-pipelines-handle-a-large-quake/36343202 [with embedded video report, and comments]


--


(linked in):

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68700303 and preceding (and any future following)

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68719500 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68725087 (and any future following)

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68773721 (and any future following)

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=76679869 and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=77869081 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86144893 and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=86187260 and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104867124 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=108302290 and preceding and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=109633310 and following

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=111041182 (and any future following)