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Oklahoma oil and gas fields and seismicity - Printable Version

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Oklahoma oil and gas fields and seismicity - Island Chris - 05-01-2014

I was curious about where oil and gas fields were in Oklahoma, to see how likely it is that most of the earthquakes there have been triggered.

There are oil and gas fields all over the state. Red, Green, and brown at the link are respectively gas, oil, or both.

The link is to a 9 Mbyte .pdf.

http://www.ogs.ou.edu/fossilfuels/MAPS/GM-36.pdf

Chris


RE: Oklahoma oil and gas fields and seismicity - Jim W. - 05-03-2014

Since most of the state seems to have either oil or gas under it would not the dept of all the various wells and how the stuff is extracted have a bigger cause and effect than anything else. I know there are lots of wells as I have flown over the state years ago from south to north in a low flying airliner.


RE: Oklahoma oil and gas fields and seismicity - Island Chris - 05-04-2014

Jim,

Hard to read your post because of typos. I imagine that the depth of injection wells and the volume and pressure of the injection are part of it. But, the other part of it would be the geology. There are lots of mid-continent and eastern areas where the stresses are close to failure, and if you increase the fluid pressure around the faults and other cracks, you will get earthquakes.

The link is interesting:

http://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2014/05/02/disposal-well-earthquakes-are-riskier-than-previously-thought-and-could-get-stronger-scientists-warn/

Chris