Isostatic Disequilibrium and Fracking

     

Say what?

Before I move forward, here's a quick overview on this topic.

Folks, I don't have a lot of time this morning, as I'm being interviewed @ 5 a.m. by a reporter from the UK who has been visiting this blog for the better part of the last six months. BTW, before I forget it, I'm up to getting regular pageviews from 34 countries on a rolling 30 day average. Outside the US, Saudi Arabia, Canada and the UK top the list right now.

As I've offered many times in many different ways, the geology of the northeast contains some very highly folded and fractured bedrock. In other words, it ain't Texas. In addition to the plate tectonic thing and the collision of Africa and North America a few hundred million years ago, we also have the aftermath of a more recent event, the last Ice Age & post-glacial rebound, throwing a whole 'nother factor into the complexity of the earth under our feet.

Trust me, the oil & gas industry geoscientist-types know damn well this is an issue, but of course, they need their jobs like everyone else so they keep their mouths shut and their fingers crossed.

You don't need a science degree or a whole lotta smarts to get this. Think about it for a moment. As covered in a prior post, there is no such thing as 100% impermeable or unfractured bedrock. Throw glacial rebound into the mix, and then start fracking thousands of square miles of bedrock a mile or two underground...well, I think you get the potential picture. And if you don't...trust me - eventually and unfortunately we all will.

For anyone interested, here's an online quiz that may be of interest.

Maybe.

Time flies when you're having fun, and it's 4:44 a.m. and I've got to sign-off now. If you get nothing else from this post, I hope you'll remember that the next time you think you felt the earth move...you probably did.

Have a good weekend.