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Hydraulic Fracking Research Paper

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Recommended: Fracking and its effects

Quinn Ringgold
October 11, 2015
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Hydraulic Fracking Part 1

Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is a process of removing petroleum and natural gas from the earth, generally in shale deposits, using pressurized fluids deposited in well casings to crack open rock where deposits lay. Fracking was first experimented with in Kansas in 1947 (Hydraulic Fracturing in California). Conventional well drilling involves drilling a vertical well to withdraw deposits directly below the drilling position. Fracking, which is considered unconventional, drills a vertical well but then expands horizontally through hydraulic fracturing or horizontal drilling. The fracking process has become highly controversial in the past decade. People …show more content…

Mitchel Energy, a Texas based oil company and one of the first to practically implement the process of hydraulic fracturing, encountered problems when first using this process. Fractures created through hydraulic fracturing are deep enough under the earth’s surface, 6,000 to 10,000 feet, that pressure from the ground caused the passages to close before the materials had been extracted (Worstall). Mitchel Energy remedied this by mixing sand in with the fluid used to create the fractures. This holds the passages open, allowing full extraction of gas and oil. Today, there are a number of synthetic “proppants” available under the name “frac sand” that serve the same purpose. Included in these are ceramic beads and aluminum beads (King). “Over one million pounds of proppants can be used while fracturing a single well” …show more content…

No one perspective can come up with the right answer, nor is there one concrete true or false, yes or no, good or bad. Each benefit associated with fracking comes with a negative counterpart, the balances between the two requiring establishment.
Topics that are touched under the broad umbrella of issues covered by fracking include; environmental impact, economic impact, and employment. Political ties and regulatory bodies quickly come into question when the subject is broached. These are just a few of the issues commonly discussed in the ongoing debate over fracking and its place in our society.
Environmental impact is the first and foremost debate relating to fracking. The act of drilling into the earth to extract materials is a massive undertaking. The results of this are natural gas and petroleum products but include large amounts of displaced soil and release of other gases into the

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Fracking is a process by which gas and oil are extracted from shale rocks using high temperatures to break rocks apart down a borehole (Fracking and Climate Change, n.d.). It involves drilling down into the earth before a high- pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside (Risky gas drilling threatens health, water supplies, n.d.).The water, sand and chemicals are injected into the rock which enables the gas to flow out into the well (Risky gas drilling threatens health, water supplies, n.d.).This can be carried out vertically or by drilling horizontally to the rock layer (News page: what is fracking and why is it controversial?, n.d.). There are many implications of fracking as it creates huge amount of environmental

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"Hydraulic fracturing, the process of extracting oil or gas by forcing fluids into the ground to fracture shale rocks, at the Eagle Ford Shale Play has produced more oil and natural gas but at the cost of environmental hazards and affect human health. The part of the process that creates the environmental hazards is the fracking fluids that are forced into the ground. For each fracking job, these fluids are comprised of 1 to 8 million gallons of water and 40,000 gallons of chemicals. Some of the 600 chemical carcinogens and toxins in the fracking fluids are lead, radium, uranium, mercury, methanol, hydrochloric acid, ethylene glycol, and formaldehyde. Once the fracking job is done, about 50 to 70 percent of fracking liquids are left in open

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