So If I understand, there is no where on earth that hasn't had an earthquake in the last 100 years.....? Now, that is hilarious. In 60 years, and all around the country ive never felt one, except for the one time that was 1000 miles from any fracking.
Who said that was the case? Please point out the post/reply that said that. (not a rhetorical question)
(But, earthquakes do happen very often that are never felt by humans--instrumentation used in detection and early warning is much more sensitive than people are)
Simple answer. I said Id accept somewhere that didn't have one in last 100 years to prove fracking causes quakes. You said it was hilarious that there isn't anywhere on earth.
Back to the original topic ... Last year (2014) Oklahoma recorded 567 earthquakes with magnitude 3 or higher ... more than any other state in the continental 48, and more than recorded in Oklahoma in all of the previous 30 years combined. Even people in the oil and gas industry ... which pretty much owns Oklahoma ... agree that fracking is probably a significant contributor to the recent swarm of earthquakes.
Perhaps of more concern is the long-term effects of many small earthquakes in a short time period. It is well known that many small earthquakes tend to relieve stress in a fault zone, and thus may beneficially delay or prevent larger quakes. But there is also some concern that small quakes just relieve stress locally, and then send the problem "down the line" to another fault zone where stresses will again accumulate.
So there is a good chance the continents will someday slide back together?
Possibly. I have it on good authority (a radio astronomer friend) that the northeastern U.S. is inexorably moving toward Sweden at ~2cm a year. They are measuring it daily.
[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 01-14-2015).]
