Some time ago a question asked by a 4th Grade Class in Southern California of the US Berkley Seismology Lab was, "How many earthquakes are recorded in California every day, week and month?
Earthquakes happen daily in Southern California, however, the majority are 1.0 and 1.5 on the Richter Scale. They grow in less frequency as the Richter Scale ratings increase.
The incidence of the 4.5 magnitude occurring repeatedly is a concern and not the usual. The incidence of daily earthquakes in Southern California being 4.5 is 0.055 in the statistics by Berkeley Seismology.
M4.5 - 2km NE of Yorba Linda, California (click here)
2012-08-08 16:33:22 UTC
Ten Hours previous.
M4.5 - 3km ENE of Yorba Linda, California (click here)2012-08-08 06:23:34 UTC
Less than 24 hours previous.
M4.5 - 24km SSW of Coalinga, California (click here)2012-08-06 07:35:49 UTC
The previous quake was 13 days previous.
M3.7 - 4km ESE of Marina del Rey, California (click here)2012-07-25 10:18:41 UTC
Thursday, February 10, 2011Officials are scrambling to learn about a practice (click here) widely used by the oil industry, hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” even as a letter sent to the EPA by ranking U.S. House committee members found some fracking fluids violate the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The Monterey County zoning administrator in October approved a use permit for Denver-based oil company Venoco to drill up to nine exploratory wells in the Hames Valley using fracking. An appeal filed by Ventana Conservation and Land Trust of Lockwood is slated to be heard by the county planning commission on March 30. Until then, Venoco cannot proceed.
......“What we recommend is we look at the environmental ramifications a little deeper,” says Kinison-Brown. Although the county has been granting use permits to oil companies since the 1930s, “Fracking has just recently come to our attention in Monterey County,” he says.
In addition to the Venoco permit, at least one oil company has expressed interest in leasing 2,445 acres of Bureau of Land Management mineral estates of the same Monterey shale formation. The BLM declined to identify that company.
...
Among citizens seeking to stop the ambitions Venoco, inc. by drilling shale are two vineyard operations in the area. To date no water quality standards have prevailed over the activities of the hydraulic fracturing, even when complaints are made by local vineyard operations.
August 04, 2011 12:30 am •
In an attempt to regulate hydraulic fracturing, "or fracking," (click here) as much as possible at the local level, Santa Barbara County is studying the possibility of a local moratorium on the common but controversial oil-recovery process.The decision came after the county Board of Supervisors heard from at least 16 people at Tuesday's meeting - a number of them advocating for the safety of the process, but many expressing concerns.The supervisors asked county staff to study the feasibility of a ban and return on Sept. 20 with more information."Before any more fracking is done near our groundwater basin, we need to be certain that it won't damage our water," Chris Wrather, chair of the Los Alamos Community Association, told the board. "I don't have the comfort that we have that level of certainty now."...The legislature is obviously concerned and has only recently passed a bill demanding full disclosure of the contents of hydraulic fracturing fluids.
Wednesday, June 01 2011 SACRAMENTO - The California State Assembly by a 50-21 margin (click here) today approved a landmark bill to require oil and gas producers to disclose what chemicals they are using when they engage in hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" in California.
New technologies and drilling practices such as fracking are allowing oil companies to access previously unavailable oil and gas reserves in the state. While industry is adapting to these new practices quickly, state regulators are falling behind.
"AB 591 would ensure that the public and regulators are aware of what chemicals are being injected into wells by oil and gas producers," Wieckowski said. "It is critical that we take this important step to require this disclosure and add some transparency into this process. The public has a right to know. Other states are reevaluating fracking due to environmental concerns and we need to increase our oversight as well."...The reasonable approach to earthquakes is early detection. Cal Tech is pursuing that ideal. Earthquakes are usually preventable, but, in the case of hydraulic fracturing earthquakes can be prevented. It can be prevented by ending hydraulic fracturing all together or defining the danger as unacceptable for a region of the country. There is no such thing as safe hydraulic fracturing, it is an 'odds game.' The odds of a person being effected by an earthquake when hydraulic fracturing is performed into the land is the best outcome expected by the petroleum industry. The industry is not interested in preventing earthquakes, so citizens have to be.
I can't believe vineyard operations aren't more important than petroleum industry designs on the land.
..."There are lots and lots of little faults all over that area," (click here) Given said of the northern Orange County region where the quakes were centered. "It's a known active area."The shaking began with a magnitude 4.5 earthquake near Yorba Linda about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, bookended by another 4.5 quake about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, but with many smaller ones in between.At a news conference Wednesday morning, Kate Hutton of the USGS said that of all the quakes, only three were probably felt by residents. The two 4.5 temblors were felt across a wide swath of Southern California, with people reporting shaking as far away as Thousand Oaks, the Santa Clarita Valley, the Westside and northern San Diego County."This is all part of the same earthquake sequence; they're all in the same area,'' Hutton told reporters. "We haven't had anything in the L.A. Basin in the last few years, but that doesn't mean we're totally quiet."...
The nightmare belongs to the nation. The only reason there are areas unattainable, as in the Rock Mountains, is because the drilling technique needed to make it profitable and/or possible doesn't exist yet.
New technologies and drilling practices such as fracking are allowing
"AB 591 would ensure that the public and regulators are aware of what chemicals are being injected into wells by oil and gas producers," Wieckowski said. "It is critical that we take this important
..."There are lots and lots of little faults all over that area," (click here) Given said of the northern Orange County region where the quakes were centered. "It's a known active area."
The shaking began with a magnitude 4.5 earthquake near Yorba Linda about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, bookended by another 4.5 quake about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, but with many smaller ones in between.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Kate Hutton of the USGS said that of all the quakes, only three were probably felt by residents. The two 4.5 temblors were felt across a wide swath of Southern California, with people reporting shaking as far away as Thousand Oaks, the Santa Clarita Valley, the Westside and northern San Diego County.
"This is all part of the same earthquake sequence; they're all in the same area,'' Hutton told reporters. "We haven't had anything in the L.A. Basin in the last few years, but that doesn't mean we're totally quiet."...
The nightmare belongs to the nation. The only reason there are areas unattainable, as in the Rock Mountains, is because the drilling technique needed to make it profitable and/or possible doesn't exist yet.
The nightmare belongs to the nation. The only reason there are areas unattainable, as in the Rock Mountains, is because the drilling technique needed to make it profitable and/or possible doesn't exist yet.
