Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumOklahoma's earthquake threat now equals California's because of man-made temblors, USGS says
The earthquake risk for Oklahoma and southern Kansas is expected to remain significant in 2017, threatening 3 million people with seismic events that can produce damaging shaking, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey forecast released Wednesday.
The seismic risk is forecast to be so high that the chance of damage in Oklahoma and southern Kansas is expected to be similar to that of earthquakes in California, USGS scientists writing in the journal Seismological Research Letters said Wednesday.
In 2016 alone, Oklahoma experienced several damaging earthquakes, including a magnitude 5.0 temblor in November near the central oil town of Cushing which proclaims itself the Pipeline Crossroads of the World that dislodged unreinforced bricks in chimneys and storefronts, sending them tumbling onto the sidewalks.
Oklahoma also saw the largest quake ever recorded in the state in 2016, when a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near Pawnee.
The earthquakes are thought to be the result of the disposal of wastewater deep underground that are a byproduct of oil extraction. Injecting the wastewater underground is not thought to trigger earthquakes everywhere it is practiced in North Dakota, for example but is widely believed by scientists to be a problem in Oklahoma.
More: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-oklahome-earthquake-20170301-story.html
The Sand Reckoner
(194 posts)Thinks this is another hoax by liberal scientists?
The people of Oklahoma can go fuck themselves.
Rhiannon12866
(203,041 posts)I don't know what it takes to ban it everywhere since it looks like the evidence is in. Governor Cuomo issued a fracking moratorium here in New York, sure sounds like they could use one in Oklahoma...
The Sand Reckoner
(194 posts)A citizenry that doesn't suck up to every Republican candidate they see, in spite of ignorant global warming denial and having their heads up the asses of the fossil fuel industry.
The state of Oklahoma chose this path. Now they get to live with the fact that their choices have real life consequences that they can't blame libruls for. Fuck them.
Rhiannon12866
(203,041 posts)And they certainly didn't make these bad choices. It's the same for those of us who are in the minority here in New York. I live in a traditionally Republican district, one that often didn't even have a Democratic candidate until we managed to elect Kirsten Gillibrand in 2006. But now we're stuck with a Paul Ryan follower. The good thing is people are starting to wake up and there have been protests outside her office and a march scheduled in a couple of weeks. The smart people of Oklahoma need to follow this national trend...
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)Now, they say temblors are a daily thing. Rec'd.