Humans: A Threat to the Environment

fracking technique was not used on a commercial scale until the 1990s, in the Barnett Shale in

Hydraulic fracturing is also known as “fracking” is a technique which involves drilling down, then horizontally as far as 10,000 feet below the surface to release natural gasses stored in the sedimentary rock known as Shale. The channel is then encased with concrete or occasionally steel to allow millions of gallons of water to be injected into the wellbore. Most water used in fracking comes from surface water sources such as rivers, lakes, or other accessible bodies of water nearby. Not only is there water being funneled into the wellbore, but also a mixture of sand and other chemicals. When the high-pressure mixture is injected underground it fractures the Shale around the wellbore and creates fissures. The fissures are then held open with

Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, is the process of removing oil and natural gas from in between layers of shale and other low-permeability rocks. This is done by drilling both a well and a horizontal tunnel. Sand and chemicals are shot through the tunnel with incredible pressure, which cracks the shale allowing the oil and natural gas to travel up the well (Jackson, 2014). Fracking has caused a breadth of controversy due to the economic benefits and the geological consequences.

Hydraulic fracturing also called fracking has been around for many years despite the recent events of controversy to continue fracturing or not. With the earth’s resources depleting rapidly every year and no sufficient replacement for energy humanity needs fracking. The process of fracking has been around for more than six decades. Fracking has been around since the 1940s and was created to increase the removal flow of oil and natural gas. In the words of chemical engineer Robert Rapier “Fracking involves pumping water, chemicals, and a proppant down an oil or gas well under high pressure to break open channels in the rock holding the oil or gas (Rapier).” A proppant can be different materials,

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process used to excavate oil and gas trapped in shale rock.

While oil and natural gas are fossil fuels that release harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, these energy sources are cleaner than coal, which is on the decline as fracking expands. Indeed, coal production fell thirteen percent from 2007 to 2012, as did nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide production. Moreover, pipeline transportation of oil and natural gas is significantly safer than traditional freight methods, which have devastated many communities around the world and cost millions of dollars.

With the age of constant industrial and technological growth has come the necessity for not only cost effective and efficient methods for industry, but also the need for obtaining fuel for the machines that make the modern world possible. Oil has become as precious a commodity as gold, if not more so; its attainments constantly driving the world's largest businesses and governments across the world into action. Naturally, a "quick-fix" solution to this problem is constantly sought after by oil companies wishing to provide oil on a massive scale. One of these drilling methods is known as induced hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking).

Hydraulic fracturing began in 1947 and still happening until now. People have used fracking to produce more than one million oil and natural gas wells since 1947. Currently "fracking accounts for 50% of locally produced natural gas and 33% of local petroleum” (Engelder 274). It proved that fracking is valuable because people can get too much natural gas and petroleum from fracking. There are 2.5 million "frac jobs" that had been performed on oil and gas wells around the world and more than one million of those are in the United Stated. Oil shale resources are abundant in United States, such as in

America has one of the highest energy consumption rates in the world. This demand has led to the popularization of the hydraulic fracturing industry. First introduced in the 1940s, hydraulic fracturing is method by which a well is drilled one to two miles below the Earth’s surface. The well then injects water and chemicals in the Earth that create fractures through which gas can flow through. Hydraulic fracturing, which is also known as fracking, became popular because of horizontal drilling in fracking is more efficient at extracting gas. As a result, a fracking boom ensued in which over a million wells were drilled in the United States in the past decade. However,

‘Hydraulic fracturing/fracking is the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas’ (Oxford dictionaries, 2015).

Unlike traditional oil or gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing uses a combination of chemically treated water and salt to break shale rock; this releases oil or gas that would not be accessible with traditional drilling methods. The oil or gas is then displaced by the water and salt and eventually collected

Hydraulic fracturing is a process of collecting natural gas by pressurizing shale beds. Fracking consists of two components: a drill and fracturing fluids [4]. Well shafts are drilled into a bed of shale less than two thousand feet deep to form a horizontal fracture because less force is required to make the rock strata buckle perpendicularly to the drill [2]. After the primary shaft has been drilled, cement is poured into the surrounding area to keep the fracturing fluids from backtracking up the shaft [2]. Once the drill is placed into the pay zone, where the reservoir of oil is located, fracturing fluids are forced into the surrounding

According to an article in The New York Times, hydraulic fracturing is best described as the technique used to drill down into the earth using a high pressure water mixture to fracture the rocks and extract the natural gas and oil. Approximately one million wells have been fracked since the 1940’s, most of these are vertical wells that drill into porous sandstone or limestone. New technology has allowed for horizontal drilling to capture gas from shale rock. Water, sand and other chemicals are injected into the rock at a high pressure to create the fractures that release the gas. The chemicals added to the water dissolve minerals, kill bacteria that may plug up the well and

Hydraulic fracturing is either referred to as “fracking” or “hydrofracking.” It is a generally new technique for oil and gas extraction. Basically for shale gas and tight oil, including cracking of rock by a pressurized fluid. Even penetrating takes into account the infusion of very pressurized fracking liquids into shale rock layers profound inside the earth. After a well is drilled, it is cased with bond trying to guarantee groundwater security and the shale is using pressurized water broke with water, chemicals, sand and other fracking liquids. This makes new channels inside the stone from which natural gas is removed at higher than customary rates.

In 1949 Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company obtained a patent for hydraulic fracturing, the first one issued in the United States. The method gained popularity and was soon used all over the world ("Hydraulic Fracturing of Oil & Gas Wells Drilled in Shale," n.d.). Despite its early start and popularity, hydraulic fracturing was not used on a large scale until 2003 when energy companies began to explore new ways of oil and gas production in the shale formations of Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wyoming, Utah and Maryland. ("A Brief History of Hydraulic Fracturing," n.d.).