Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Treating Frack Waste so as to Not Cause Earthquakes - Part 1

What the hey, I'll give up my millions and open this to the world.  After all, that's what those celebrities did.  :)  (OMG!)

It's all about what you think is causing the earthquakes.  If you are the USGS you think it is just pressure, and you can't do anything.  If you are smarter than them, then you know it is stress corrosion (sc)

I came across sc when I was studying the great URL experiment in Canada.  This was a test run for a deep nuclear waste repository, now all wasted, because they think they can locate in karst.  :)  The essence was that all friction in rock is tied up by quartz to quartz contact, and that some things could weaken that.

The experiment to prove all this (might cost $10) is to take two quartz tips, compressed and sheared.  The expensive part would be the testing frame and micrometers, but ultrasonics would work as well.  Immerse in deep Texas rock water and observe no action.  This water has been injected for years without earthquakes.

Now immerse it in frack waste, or tap water, and watch it go.  Does this mean anything to anybody?

--to be continued

No comments: