Quakes Linked to Drilling
The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has called an emergency meeting to temporarily shut down two injection wells in Faulkner County that have been linked to an earthquake swarm in the region.
Arkansas Geological Survey geologist Scott Ausbrooks didn’t reveal any details ahead of tomorrow’s public hearing and debate. But he did tell local media that this looks similar to a case in Colorado in the mid 1960s where injection wells were causing what he calls induced seismicity — or manmade tremors.
Injection wells are created by blasting water — in this case wastewater — into the ground to split rock in order to reach pockets of natural gas.
In Colorado in the 1960s this type of activity found a direct correlation between the amount of water pushed into the wells and the size of seismic activity. Many expect a similar finding in Arkansas, where injection wells dot the landscape and nervous residents tolerate daily shaking.
Earlier this week, a 4.7 quake registered in Faulkner County, the largest tremor to date.
Scientific evidence from a report that will be released tomorrow and increased seismic activity have forced the hand of the Arkansas Gas and Oil Commission which has called an emergency meeting in Little Rock to discuss the issue.
Arkansas sits at the southern end of the New Madrid seismic zone, a very active fault line that stretches from southern Illinois into northeastern Arkansas. But the zone ends near Poinsett County. The increased quake activity has centered around Faulkner County, two hundred miles to the west.
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