{"id":11774,"date":"2012-12-07T10:19:45","date_gmt":"2012-12-07T16:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=11774"},"modified":"2013-02-11T13:02:51","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T19:02:51","slug":"policy-response-to-manmade-quakes-must-bridge-gap-between-likely-and-certainly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/12\/07\/policy-response-to-manmade-quakes-must-bridge-gap-between-likely-and-certainly\/","title":{"rendered":"Policy Response to Manmade Quakes Must Bridge Gap Between \u2018Likely and Certainly\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma\u2019s November 2011 earthquake was \u201clikely triggered\u201d by drilling fluid injection in nearby disposal wells, according to research by University of Oklahoma seismologist Katie Keranen.<\/p><p>The 5.6-magnitude temblor near Prague was Oklahoma\u2019s largest on record and <a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/public\/energywire\/2012\/12\/03\/1\">the largest quake associated with underground injection<\/a>. And while there\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/12\/05\/as-disposal-wells-age-risk-of-stronger-quakes-grows\/\">growing scientific evidence<\/a> that disposal wells and hydraulic fracturing can trigger earthquakes, proving definitive cause-and-effect is difficult \u2014 if not impossible.<\/p><p>Oklahoma\u2019s drilling regulator, the Corporation Commission, is keeping an open mind, the <em>Tulsa World<\/em>\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tulsaworld.com\/news\/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20121207_16_A1_ULNSbo491570&rss_lnk=1\">Wayne Green reports<\/a>. But it\u2019s hard to act on \u201can open question\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The commission has turned to the state geological survey to investigate the issue, but until it comes up with conclusions, the issue is unresolved, he said.<\/p><\/blockquote><p><!--more-->Keranen presented the findings Wednesday during the American Geophysical Union\u2019s fall meeting in San Francisco.<\/p><p>Austin Holland, research seismologist for the Oklahoma Geological Survey, is hopeful scientists will be able to explain the cause of the November 2011 earthquake, but tells the\u00a0<em>World<\/em> that definitive data may never be available.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Holland urges a healthy scientific skepticism:<\/p><p>Holland said falsely identifying a natural earthquake as something man-made would have reverberations beyond the scientific community. An induced earthquake would not be included in U.S. Geological Survey&#8217;s hazard calculations, which are used to create and update building codes and establish construction requirements.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma\u2019s November 2011 earthquake was \u201clikely triggered\u201d by drilling fluid injection in nearby disposal wells, according to research by University of Oklahoma seismologist Katie Keranen.The 5.6-magnitude temblor near Prague was Oklahoma\u2019s largest on record and the largest quake associated with underground injection. And while there\u2019s growing scientific evidence that disposal wells and hydraulic fracturing can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[489,500,238],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11774"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11779,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11774\/revisions\/11779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}