PowerSource: Fracking caused earthquakes in existing faults in Ohio, study says

A new scientific study has linked 77 minor earthquakes last March around Poland, Ohio, just across the Pennsylvania-Ohio state line, to hydraulic fracturing.

The seismic sequence, including a rare “felt” quake of a magnitude 3.0 on the Richter Scale, was linked to active “fracking” by Hilcorp Energy Co. on a well pad about a half mile from the epicenter, according to research published online in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

One of the study’s authors, Robert Skoumal, of Miami University of Ohio, said it is rare for deep fracking operations associated with shale gas extraction to cause earthquakes large enough to be felt by people on the surface. But seismic monitoring advances have found the number of “felt and unfelt” earthquakes associated with fracking have increased over the past 10 years. MORE