Fracking caused an earthquake every day at the UK’s only active site at Preston New Road in Lancashire, analysis has found.
Between 2018 and 2019, the site near Blackpool was responsible for 192 earthquakes over the course of 182 days , according to analysis of House of Commons Library data by the Liberal Democrats.
Of course, that analysis hasn’t been released. Got to get a couple of days of shrieking in before anyone can examine the facts.
I looked up how many earthquakes the UK gets anyway. The British Geological Society says 200-300 per year above magnitude 1, most of them too weak to be felt. Given that these things tend to obey Zipf’s Law, that means there’s probably >300/yr in the range 0.5-1 magnitude, which is the level that Cameron set to stop fracking. It’s all tempests and teapots.
What they mean is that there was a discernible uptick on a seismograph. If the magnitudes involved were sufficient to cause any kind of damage, they would be telling us all about it. The fact that magnitudes are not mentioned is a clear indication that they hope people will remember the initial headline and not notice the later clarification.
Seismicity induced by coal mining has been a common occurrence in the United Kingdom (e.g. Redmayne 1988). Indeed, Wilson et al. (2015) estimated that between 20 and 30 per cent of all earthquakes recorded in the United Kingdom between 1970 and 2012 were induced by coal mining. https://academic.oup.com/gji/article/212/2/942/4564775
Yes DocBud!!!
“Small earthquake near Blackpool – not many dead.”
Anyone living near a main road could say that they experience earthquakes daily from the passage of lorries. Do we stop lorries?
As a child I used to live very close to the old Great Western mainline. The tracks were up on an embankment, maybe 50 yards from the house. Coal trains (presumably from south Wales) used to rumble through on their way to Didcot at night, the whole house used to shake. Crockery would rattle, pictures hanging on the wall would sway slightly.
We (and the house) survived.
How does that compare to the number of earthquakes over the same period in other parts of the UK?
Also normally we say tremors if no one gets harmed and there is no property damage.
Jim, you have reminded me of the movie “The Smallest Show on Earth”.
Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna inherit a cinema (the ‘Fleapit’) which has a railway viaduct running right alongside.
The projectionist (Peter Sellers) would throw himself over the projectors to stop them shaking to bits as the express hurtled through……
Also, turning up the heating full bore whilst showing a movie set in the desert, eliciting a mad rush for the usherette selling ices at the intermission.
They really don’t make them like that any more.
Its probably the most that the earth has ever moved for anyone in a relationship with a Lib Dem
I live 50 yds from a bus station and 100 yds from a railway station. I experience greater earth tremors multiple times a day. BAN BUSES! BAN TRAINS!
Mohave Greenie checks his corner of the Mojave. Yep, 87 earthquakes above 1.0 in the last week. Including a 3.7 and a 2.2.
So the House of Commons librarians have been conducting seismic research in Lancashire, have they?
Well knock me down with a feather.
More seriously, these measurements will be published elsewhere. Try the RGS I suggest. The instant rebuttal unit of the branch Worstallians should spring into action.
https://earthquaketrack.com/gb-eng-blackpool/recent
Note that the tracking starts at 1.5 Richter because else they would be indistinguishable from local traffic..
Yes… many, many earthquakes… not.
If you want Earthquakes, I know just the man…
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P2IjPaTLUvY/WvC4P1A_f8I/AAAAAAAAHOg/vcHCobN9jmgyVw6TbrhvLr-RepTPWgz6gCLcBGAs/s1600/MSH013.jpg
This is a map of the earthquakes in my area over the last 2 weeks.
https://earthquake.alaska.edu/ I can tell you from experience that it is very rare that we feel any quakes less than magnitude 4.
Homeopathic earthquakes anybody?
I’d wager the Guardian would run with it
Living in a country which is on the edge of two tectonic plates I am amused at the efforts to stir up the fear of a slight tremble.Lake Taupo in the middle of North island in New Zealand has experienced something in the region of 750 earthquakes already this year. I felt a slight movement when the Kaikoura one happened and I am about 500 kilometres further south.