The United States rests on over a dozen large shale formations that contain vast amounts of oil and natural gas reserves. In order to harness these resources, the U.S. employs a process called Fracking. During this process, fracking companies drill a mile underground and inject millions of gallons of water that contain sand and various chemicals into the shale at high pressure. This process causes small fractures to form in the rock and release the natural gases and oils released inside. While fracking has existed since the 1940’s, its popularity has been growing lately. Over the last decade, the fracking industry has been providing more than fifty percent of the oil used in the United States; due to fracking, the United States has become less dependent on foreign …show more content…
Although it has its advantages, fracking is an environmental hazard that leads to a rise in earthquakes, water contamination, and methane pollution (BARTH). As fracking rose in popularity over the last decade, the amount of earthquakes rose along with it. The waste water that is collected during fracking is disposed of by injecting it into deep underground wells at high pressure; the waste water then fills the pores in dormant faults and causes them to slip and unleash the quakes. Within the past decade, dozens of small earthquakes have been linked to fracking in Ohio, Oklahoma, and other states (BARTH). There has been more recent seismic activity in Oklahoma than anywhere else in the United States outside of Alaska. In November 2016, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck north-central Oklahoma; it was the sixth of that strength in the state’s history and reawakened concerns of tremors caused by oil and gas activity. While this tremor was one of only six 5.0 magnitude earthquakes to strike Oklahoma since 1882, it was the third to strike that year. Oklahoma has experienced a severe spike in higher magnitude earthquakes since 2008; this progression in the quantity of earthquakes coincided with the rise of