“As Quakes Shake Oklahoma, Scientists Eye Oil and Gas Industry”

Kaitlin Ryan

Earth Science

“As Quakes Shake Oklahoma, Scientists Eye Oil and Gas Industry”

Fountain, Henry. "As Quakes Shake Oklahoma, Scientists Eye Oil and Gas Industry."Nytimes.com. N.p., 12 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/science/earth/as-quakes-shake-oklahoma-scientists-eye-oil-and-gas-industry.html?ref=science&_r=0>.

                I thought that this article was very informative on a topic that hasn’t been publicized very much, but is very important. In Oklahoma, there have been an abnormally large amount of earthquakes. Yearly, Oklahoma experiences fifty tremors, most insignificant, but this year alone, there have already been 2,600 earthquakes. And on top of that there have been 87 this past week. Many people are very concerned and want answers. Many scientists have dug deep into what could be causing this and have a few explanations. First and most popular hypothesis is that waste water disposal wells have been causing these earthquakes. This is believed to be a main cause because waste-water didn't used to be disposed there. This is one that appears to be the most believed, but there isn't’t lots of evidence behind it like the next hypothesis. This hypothesis is that these earthquakes are due to fracking or the injecting of liquid at high temperatures into shale rock. This is believed to be the cause because this changes the underground pressure, and when the old stress faults slip past each other, an earthquake occurs. Scientists have lots of information to believe that this is the case since this isn't the first time that this has occurred. In China, a damn was holding up so much weight and was thought to be the cause of an earthquake that killed 80,000 people. Also in many places where geothermal projects are taking place there have been quakes: water is pumped underground to hot rocks, as a result, energy is produced. This isn’t believed to be causing some of the more harmful earthquakes because it has only been known to cause small tremors or few minor earthquakes over short periods of time. Along with these two main hypotheses there are many other ideas out there. Dr. Holland, a seismologist believes that this could also be due to changes in the water level of a nearby lake, although this isn’t the most likely explanation, it is still providing information on what may be causing this.

This article connects to humans very well, especially Americans. In our own country, there have been people in the state of Oklahoma who have been getting his by an irregular amount of earthquakes. This is important to us, because we can know that fracking may cause dangers such as earthquakes, as well as wastewater disposal, so by restricting from doing these things, we can hope to not increase our risk in the future. This also provides information for future projects, especially geothermal which has become very popular. This has been saving and renewing energy, but maybe these projects should be put on hold until it is further tested on how this is affecting the earth, and whether it is causing earthquakes. In general, this information could help save lives by informing people the dangers of doing these things, as well as warning people about dangers even in change in water level that people should be on top of and monitor to predict occurrences like this.             

Overall, this article was very well written, and was easy to read and understand. There was some information from scientists and what they thought. I thought it could have been better if the author had gone into greater detail about how the scientists drew some of the conclusions of what the cause was. Another thing that I though was well presented was the statistics that helped show what the normal occurrence is to what is happening now, it helps to give perspective on the situation. I thought it was a little unclear about how the author knew that change in water level could be causing these earthquakes. Other than that, the article had a very smooth flow and transitioned very nicely between ideas, and was easy for someone who had little knowledge on this topic to understand.