What’s Quaking Beneath Ohio’s Shale?

Just after 3 0’clock on Sat­ur­day after­noon, as res­i­dents of Youngstown, Ohio were prepar­ing for their New Year’s rev­elry, they got a shock. A 4.0 mag­ni­tude earth­quake shook the town. It was the largest quake in the area since 1986. The first north­east­ern Ohio earth­quake was recorded in 1823, long before frack­ing came to town.

Youngstown is known more for its shut­tered indus­try than its seis­mo­log­i­cal activ­ity. But on Mon­day, geol­o­gists study­ing a series of recent earth­quakes in the area say they’re almost cer­tain deep injec­tion wells caused the tem­blors. Deep injec­tion wells are used to dis­pose of frack­ing waste­water.

So frack­ing did not directly cause the earth­quakes, but the deep injec­tions are a part of the gas drilling process. The well thought to be the cul­prit was forced to stop tak­ing frack fluid, even before Saturday’s quake.

The Huff­in­g­ton Post reported on Mon­day that researchers from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Obser­va­tory in Pal­isades, N.Y. say that doesn’t mean the quakes will stop right away.

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State Impact