In Canada, a Direct Link Between Fracking and Earthquakes

Fountain, Henry. "In Canada, a Direct Link Between Fracking and Earthquakes." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Nov. 2016. Web. 17 Nov. 2016.  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/science/fracking-earthquakes-alberta-canada.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0 

Many opposers to fracking state that the process can lead to an earthquake.  Scientists say that these kinds of earthquakes are not common in the United States, but are common in Canada.  Canada has had many earthquakes within the past five years that have been due to either fracking or hydraulic fracturing.  Hydraulic fracturing is when "water, chemicals, and sand are injected at high pressure into a well drilled in a shale formation to break up the rock and release oil and gas".  Scientists that studied the earthquakes said that the earthquakes occurred because of the increase in pressure during the fracking, and the changes in pressure from the remaining fluid after.  Most of the recent earthquakes that have happened in the U.S. were because of the burial of wastewater from oil and gas wells, not fracking.  When wastewater is injected into disposal wells, and flows into the rock, it can cause an earthquake.  This is because the pressure changes in the formation will change the balance in the fault zone.   In Alberta, however, where the earthquakes were occurring, the scientists had found links between the earthquakes and fracking, not wastewater injection.  Dr. Eaton and Xuewei Bao, studied the seismic data from Alberta, and found that to the east of the fault zone, earthquakes occurred during the tracking process.  To the west, most the earthquakes occurred after the fracking ended.  From this, they found out that in the east, shocks were traveling into rock formations and changing the stress patterns.  In the west, the fracking fluid stayed underground and could possibly lead to more earthquakes.  Scientists are conducting more research to find out why Alberta has different reactions to fracking than the United States.         

This article is very relevant to society today.  Fracking is a debated topic all over the world and it is important to realize that scientists are looking at all the positives and negatives that come from it and are also looking at the connecting between fracking and earthquakes.  It is interesting that parts of the U.S. and Canada respond differently to fracking.  Also it's interesting that scientists believe that the U.S. earthquakes are from wastewater injections and the Canada earthquakes are from fracking.  This topic affects a lot of people and it's good that scientists are studying it.    

This article was very well written.  I like how the author explained the information in a sophisticated and brief way.   I also found it interesting that the author kept connecting the information back to the United States so readers could see how fracking in Canada is different than fracking the U.S.  Although some parts were confusing and hard to read.  The author said scientists are conducting more research to see why Alberta reacts differently, but it would have been nice to read how and what they were going to do to research.