OU switched position on earthquake causes after not receiving grant
Posted: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 5:28 pm |
Updated: 7:19 pm, Tue Jun 23, 2015.

After not receiving a $25 million grant from Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm in 2014, OU shifted its position on causes of the state's earthquakes, according to a story by Environment & Energy Publishing.

While the university was seeking the grant from Hamm, it took the position of the state's earthquakes were natural and not caused by the oil industry's actions, according to the article.

However, since the university has learned it would not get the grant, which would have been used to build the Continental Resources Center for Energy Research and Technology, the Oklahoma Geological Survey (O.G.S.) has switched its position, now saying that the earthquakes are "very likely" triggered by actions from the industry, the article said.

Oklahoma State Rep. Jason Murphey said in the article that there are "all kinds of transparency and conflict-of-interest issues" with the university asking Hamm for a donation of such size.

OU President David Boren serves on the Continental Resources Board of Directors as well, a position for which he made $349,720 at in 2014.

A new U.S. Geological Survey and Oklahoma Geological Survey analysis found that 145 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater occurred in Oklahoma from January 2014 (through May 2; see accompanying graphic). The previous annual record, set in 2013, was 109 earthquakes, while the long-term average earthquake rate, from 1978 to 2008, was just two magnitude 3.0 or larger earthquakes per year. Important to people living in central and north-central Oklahoma is that the likelihood of future, damaging earthquakes has increased as a result of the increased number of small and moderate shocks.

Oklahoma’s heightened earthquake activity since 2009 includes 20 magnitude 4.0 to 4.8 quakes, plus the largest earthquake in Oklahoma’s history – a magnitude 5.6 earthquake that occurred near Prague on Nov. 5, 2011. The 2011 Prague earthquake damaged a number of homes and the historic Benedictine Hall at St. Gregory's University in Shawnee. Prior to the 2011 Prague earthquake, the largest earthquake of Oklahoma’s history was a magnitude 5.5 earthquake that occurred in 1952 near El Reno and damaged state buildings in Oklahoma City.

USGS statistically analyzed the recent earthquake rate changes and found that they do not seem to be due to typical, random fluctuations in natural seismicity rates. Significant changes in both the background rate of events and earthquake triggers needed to have occurred in order to explain the increases in seismicity, which is not typically observed when modeling natural earthquakes.

The analysis suggests that a likely contributing factor to the increase in earthquakes is triggering by wastewater injected into deep geologic formations. This phenomenon is known as injection-induced seismicity, which has been documented for nearly half a century, with new cases identified recently in Arkansas, Ohio, Texas and Colorado. A recent publication by the USGS suggests that a magnitude 5.0 foreshock to the 2011 Prague, Okla., earthquake was human-induced by fluid injection; that earthquake may have then triggered the main-shock and its aftershocks. OGS studies also indicate that some of the earthquakes in Oklahoma are due to fluid injection. The OGS and USGS continue to study the Prague earthquake sequence in relation to nearby injection activities.

http://www.oudaily.com/news/ou-switched-position-on-earthquake-causes-after-not-receiving-grant/article_a0900bb8-19f6-11e5-a9dd-8b02cc1f6b71.html#.VYqlI36omgU.

When this 'REPORT' was first released it was met with much amusement and scoff; 'who in their right mind couldn't see the increased number of earthquakes were precisely correlated to the number of injection wells drilled and operating in the Oklahoma oil field'...

And yet this was published and the BIG OIL snatched it up as the end-all be-all bible about their "SAFE INJECTION WELLS & FRACKING" practices!!!







http://earthquake.usgs.gov/contactus/golden/newsrelease_05022014.php

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And yet I've sadly seen the same behavior played out by greater minds and lesser thinking humans about our 'Global Warming/Climate Change' issues; those lesser thinking humans with 'Master Degree's' in Environmental Sciences...selling their diploma/ideology to the highest bidder; regardless of the facts & truth behind their reports!

Rooster35 stated >>>
It's Capitalism, baybaaaay! When money talks, bs walks. smile

Ya...I 'GET IT'
But my 'Pollyanna mentality' of that's just so WRONG ON ALL LEVELS and expectations of our professors and master degreed humans being above all that ---

It's Capitalism, baybaaaay! When money talks, bs walks.

sounds like Cronyism to me!

I'm still not sure they're Human beings. They gotta be aliens masquerading as Humans.

For what it's worth, residents of Oklahoma are learning more and more about Harold Hamm's shenanigans.

By the way, fracking itself doesn't cause the earthquakes.
It is the injection of waste-water into wells that causes them.

For what it's worth, residents of Oklahoma are learning more and more about Harold Hamm's shenanigans.

By the way, fracking itself doesn't cause the earthquakes.
It is the injection of waste-water into wells that causes them.

Yep, same difference.