Seven million Americans could experience man-made earthquakes from fracking

Thursday, April 07, 2016 by: Jennifer Lea Reynolds
Tags: fracking, earthquakes, USGS

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(NaturalNews) Thanks to fracking, upwards of 7 million Americans are at risk of experiencing an earthquake in their own cities and towns.

This scary information comes from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which recently released a map detailing earthquakes that have occurred this year. Because the USGS has observed activity due to unnatural, or induced, circumstances, they're now including quakes caused by humans as part of their seismic risk maps. Yes indeed, that's just how bad all of this fracking has become; it's so prevalent and detrimental that the USGS has actually taken it into consideration when assessing their data.

"By including human-induced events, our assessment of earthquake hazards has significantly increased in parts of the US," said Mark Petersen, Chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project, as reported in an article by the Daily Mail.

Surges in earthquakes evident as fracking continues

The part of the United States that has been most affected seems to be Oklahoma, which the USGS says has a one in eight chance of experiencing damaging quakes in 2016. That shocking statistic even surpasses California's probability of having such geological events. In fact, the third strongest earthquake recorded in Oklahoma was recorded in February 2016, which was a 5.1 magnitude quake that shook the Fairview area. The year before, Oklahoma had over 900 quakes that were a 3.0 magnitude or more, a sharp increase from the two of a similar strength that occurred in 2009.

Following Oklahoma's surge in induced seismic activity are Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas and Colorado.

In a video report embedded in the Daily Mail article, Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4 notes that the USGS says "fracking is to blame." The station reported that, according to a USGS press release, "the increased seismicity is due to fluid injection associated with new technologies that enable the extraction of oil and gas."

Not everyone thinks fracking is a bad thing, saying more science is needed to prove its dangers

However, like many issues that involve a clash between money-making technologies and the health of the planet and its inhabitants, there are bound to be varied opinions. This is especially the case when information comes forward that has the potential to threaten certain companies' efforts and interfere with their financial goals.

Kim Hatfield of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, for example, says that the state has always experienced geological activity. Therefore, he's not entirely buying what the USGS has to say about earthquakes coming from man-made activity. Of the aforementioned statement that the activity is due to fluid injection technologies, he expresses concern. "I don't think it's particularly helpful," Hatfield explains in the video report, "because it basically says, 'We've come to a conclusion but we don't have the science to back it up.'"

We think increased earthquake activity that coincides with increased drilling deep into the earth – which fractures and weakens it – is proof enough, contrary to what Hatfield believes.

Fracking not just linked to earthquakes but cancer too!

Sadly, fracking not only is responsible for causing more earthquakes throughout the United States but is also linked to causing cancer.

In a study published in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, it was found that the wastewater that comes from hydraulic fracking deep down in a well contains a range of heavy metals. In turn, wells, food and farmland are contaminated. This wastewater is detrimental to health; the published findings indicate that tumor growth was observed in five out of six mice after they were injected with fracking wastewater. These tumors were observed after just three short months – much earlier than anticipated.

There's nothing good about fracking. It's putting millions of Americans at risk of experiencing earthquakes and developing cancer.

How can anyone defend something that unleashes this kind of damage?

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NaturalNews.com

Science.NaturalNews.com