20th November 2016, 8:49 AM
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/t...a-history/
Well, about time. The science pretty conclusively shows a direct relationship between when wastewater injection started and when Oklahoma's earthquakes started. Only giant oil companies seem to be able to get away with literally destroying people's homes with their machines like some Crichton book. Apoligists like to talk about how Oklahoma "always" had earthquakes and that we sit on some fault lines. While that is technically true, those fault lines are pretty much extinct and the past earthquakes were so low in strength only specially designed machines could even detect them. These are different. I feel one of these things every few weeks now, and I've run out of the house into an open field on a few occasions just to keep a roof from collapsing on me. (If there's a plus to earthquakes in Oklahoma, it's that we're a plains state and have a lot of flat open areas to wait out a shake in, but on the minus side, the best way to avoid being hurt in an earthquake is the worst way to deal with a tornado, and should the two happen at the same time, it'll be pretty hard to come up with a viable survival strategy.) I've recently read that apparently running outside isn't recommended because in most Earthquake prone areas, the buildings are build to code so they don't collapse on you. I live in Oklahoma. We were never considered "earthquake prone" before. I was never taught any of that in school when they were doing the standard state required tornado and fire drills. Most people here have no idea what to do in an earthquake because there was never a reason to teach those drills in school. Further, not a single structure in Oklahoma is built to any sort of quake code. Not only are there no laws regarding building to resist earthquakes, not a single construction company ever considered that worth thinking about. This is why all these comparatively low level earthquakes are destroying houses and historic structures at their foundation. (Mind you, we SHOULD have had some sort of tornado code that required basements, and well, that didn't happen. As I've mentioned before, almost no building or house in Oklahoma is built with a basement, and the rare exceptions were usually custom built by the person who intended to live in it.)
As you might imagine, this whole situation looks pretty ridiculous to me. If someone built an outdoor firing range just outside my house with people firing in the direction of my house to hit the targets, I could justifiably get that place shut down almost immediately, even before one of them missed and actually hit me. No excuses of "well, if everyone just had perfect aim, you'd never be at risk" would fly. This is the same level of reckless endangerment, but somehow everyone in the state government is just fine with it.
Well, about time. The science pretty conclusively shows a direct relationship between when wastewater injection started and when Oklahoma's earthquakes started. Only giant oil companies seem to be able to get away with literally destroying people's homes with their machines like some Crichton book. Apoligists like to talk about how Oklahoma "always" had earthquakes and that we sit on some fault lines. While that is technically true, those fault lines are pretty much extinct and the past earthquakes were so low in strength only specially designed machines could even detect them. These are different. I feel one of these things every few weeks now, and I've run out of the house into an open field on a few occasions just to keep a roof from collapsing on me. (If there's a plus to earthquakes in Oklahoma, it's that we're a plains state and have a lot of flat open areas to wait out a shake in, but on the minus side, the best way to avoid being hurt in an earthquake is the worst way to deal with a tornado, and should the two happen at the same time, it'll be pretty hard to come up with a viable survival strategy.) I've recently read that apparently running outside isn't recommended because in most Earthquake prone areas, the buildings are build to code so they don't collapse on you. I live in Oklahoma. We were never considered "earthquake prone" before. I was never taught any of that in school when they were doing the standard state required tornado and fire drills. Most people here have no idea what to do in an earthquake because there was never a reason to teach those drills in school. Further, not a single structure in Oklahoma is built to any sort of quake code. Not only are there no laws regarding building to resist earthquakes, not a single construction company ever considered that worth thinking about. This is why all these comparatively low level earthquakes are destroying houses and historic structures at their foundation. (Mind you, we SHOULD have had some sort of tornado code that required basements, and well, that didn't happen. As I've mentioned before, almost no building or house in Oklahoma is built with a basement, and the rare exceptions were usually custom built by the person who intended to live in it.)
As you might imagine, this whole situation looks pretty ridiculous to me. If someone built an outdoor firing range just outside my house with people firing in the direction of my house to hit the targets, I could justifiably get that place shut down almost immediately, even before one of them missed and actually hit me. No excuses of "well, if everyone just had perfect aim, you'd never be at risk" would fly. This is the same level of reckless endangerment, but somehow everyone in the state government is just fine with it.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)