Unthreaded
Aug 28, 2019 at 9:52 AM | AK
Thank you for the further explanations.
Did/does anyone monitor for earth tremors in coal mining areas, deep mines or open cast? Or stone quarries using explosives?
Are the stresses/pressures that are being relieved by earth tremors in the UK, part of the rebound since the last ice age, whether the actual "trigger event" is blamed on fracking or just "cause unknown, further research funding required"?
golf charlie
stewgreen
just tried to reply to a Guardian tweet about Bercow's "outrage" and Twitter won't let me post the comment below:
Bercow claims outrage ? gosh! ..... oh well, in the immortal words of BSM Williams - Oh Dear, How Sad, Never Mind
I click on reply, type in text, click on action button, the screen button bitmap does it's "pushed" thing but the reply isn't posted. Tried half a dozen times in different browser tabs / windows.
Expect more of this and worse
tomo
Just in case anyone has been alseep. Boris is about to prorogue parliament. Cue many remainer tears.
TheBigYinJames
AK
http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_events/20190808165045.html#page=summary
2.3ML in Helston, Cornwall. So much for radioactive granite, eh?
It doesn't add up...
AK
more on the subject of earthquakes from USGS inc. slow release etcetera.
I'm still wondering how it is that there is no limit on induced seismicity and a voluntary code of reporting / monitoring for just about everything else - it strikes me as "OK, you can have horseless carriages but every one has to be preceded by a pensioner on foot carrying a red flag" stuff.
The geological context is important - but the whinnying and triumphalism of The Guardian / BBC about each event when one knows that they know F-all about the topic beyond the "fracking is harming Gaia" mantra is exceeding tiresome. Even more tiresome is the continued bureaucratic parasitism by the insufferable fat slob Lord Smiffy of Finsbury and his chums
tomo
Release of seismic energy in small packages was once promoted as a measure to avoid "the big one" in California but AFAIK was never implemented because of the very real risk setting off what you were attempting to prevent. In a litigious environment like California organizations wishing to conduct such experiments could not get insurance cover.
The geological setting is very different in Lancashire. There the seismic energy being released lies within the deformation of thick shales. Normally teconic stresses in these settings are not released along well defined fault planes but by slow deformation (squeezing) of the shales themselves. Adding overpressured fluids, short circuits the normal ductile deformation process and the rocks break. What is in doubt is how much stress is present and how much can be released at any one go? I would suspect that the occurrence of a 2.9 and a 2.1 seismic event at the same place and within a week came as a great surprise. Whether or not it foretells worse to come is anyone's guess. It is, however, a distinct possibility that these northern shale basins will turn out to be too tectonically stressed to be exploited safely.
To make comparisons with seismic activity associated with drilling and hydraulically fracturing between geothermal wells in granite is clearly not appropriate. They are completely different in terms of their geology, not least in the manner by which the rocks deform and dissipate stress.
AK
Aug 28, 2019 at 8:24 AM | Mark Hodgson
It is pure Bob Ward. He is using the Guardian to criticise the Met Office for not being alarmist enough.
“At the moment, the Met Office seems to be afraid to talk about climate change. For instance, it published State of the UK Climate 2018 last month, which listed key trends in rainfall and temperature but did not mention climate change,” said Bob Ward of the Grantham research institute on climate change and the environment at the London School of Economics.
golf charlie
Aug 28, 2019 at 8:42 AM | Still In The Dark
I like that thinking. It makes sense and is comforting.
But is the build up and release of seismic energy linear? Because if it isn't then it doesn't follow.
M Courtney
By the by, I'm not long back from a long weekend hill-walking in Galloway, and have never seen so many butterflies, nor have I ever seen so great a variety of butterfly types over such a short period. Are they thriving this year, does anyone know?
Mark Hodgson
Looks like Greta will time arrival just right for UK lunchtime news.
I see that some Democrats are staging a Climate Crisis "Town Hall" wibbling marathon in NY - obviously hoping that Greta will grace them with her presence and bless the proceedings