What´s Hydraulic Fracturing?

Fracking is not safe because in the areas where Fracking is taking place, it is causing crimes which isn’t beneficial to the economy, it causes methane to get into peoples water also it is effecting

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth.The dangers of fracking are the chemicals that go into fracking and how much water is used and contamination of city water. Some dangers of fracking are water usage. They use 2 to 5 million gallons of water. Not all of the chemicals are recovered from the ground. We only know of 8 out of 600 chemicals. To many chemicals are used and some a harmful. Fracking water usage is too high for instance one well can use 144,000,000million gallons of water. 50%-70% of the fracking fluid is left in the ground and isn’t biodegradable. The waste fluid that is outside in the sunlight evaporates and releases volatile organic compounds(Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and enter the surrounding air.) Due to the VOCs acid rain, ground level ozone and contaminated air. Ground level ozone is bad, but ozone up high in the atmosphere protects the earth from the Sun’s harmful rays.

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.

Throughout the whole drilling process, many chemicals, and wastes release to the air. Among these chemicals, the process emits a huge amount of methane which is a very big contributor to global warming. The possibility of water contamination in fracking areas is also very immense because of the high tendency of wastes to seep back in to water supply. Rachel Richardson, a co-author of the paper from Environment America, told ThinkProgress, “For the past decade, fracking has been a nightmare for our drinking water, our open spaces, and our climate”. Researches have also revealed, as a result of the application of huge pressure in to the rocks, fracking triggers earthquake. As per MSNBC report “new study links Oklahoma earthquakes to fracking”

energy needs for decades."Fracking has unlocked massive new supplies of oil and clean-burning natural gas from dense deposits of shale — supplies that increase our country’s energy security and improve our ability to generate electricity, heat homes and power vehicles for generations to come," according to Yost, Erin E., John Stanek, and Lyle D. Burgoon , an alliance of oil and gas industry groups.But opponents say the industry is whitewashing fracking's real effects, a long list that includes air pollution, groundwater contamination, health problems and surface water

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for short, is the process of extracting oil or gas from deep beneath the Earth’s surface by pushing water into shale rock to displace the oil or gas (Pritchard, 2013).

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

The process of hydraulic fracturing – shooting water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure into underground wells to release natural gas – is a divisive issue: Some say it dumps chemicals into ground water supplies, others argue it causes earthquakes, and still others think it can revolutionize America’s energy industry.

As we become increasingly technologically complex, humans are becoming more and more reliant on energy. This energy is used for gasoline, heating and electricity among many others. Acquiring energy is very important but acquiring this energy in the most environmentally friendly way is even more important. There are various methods used when obtaining natural gas but one of the most controversial ways is through the process of hydraulic fracturing. The idea of Hydraulic fracturing or Fracking dates back to 1866 when inventor Col. E.A.L. Roberts lowered a torpedo to the bottom of a well, filled the well with water and the detonated the charge. The weight of the water forced an explosion and oil began to gush out. Modern

The process of the collection of an underground fluid would not be possible without the use of hydraulic fracturing. In the Shale reserves, located about 5,000 feet underground, suffer an extremely low permeability rate. Permeability is the measure of how well a fluid flows through an absorbent material at the depth, and within such nonporous rock, the ability of fluids to travel to the well is greatly limited. Fracturing increases the area of the fluid that is exposed to porous materials and thus greatly increases production. The method of fracturing utilizes a few key components which allow for an economical extraction of resources.

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking has been around since the 1940’s, (Choma, et al, 2016), additionally it involves a large amount of pressurized water that has also been mixed with sand and other toxic chemicals to force shale gas out of deep rock formations (Deveau, 2014). The sand and supplementary chemicals are used to ensure that the fractures will remain accessible, to ensure that the oil and gas can flow back to the surface (Wheeler, 2015). There are two main types of hydraulic fracturing: vertical and horizontal (Choma, et al, 2016). Vertical fracking is the conventional method of drilling straight down into the earth’s crust, compared to horizontal fracking which allows the well to take place laterally (Choma, et al, 2016). The mix

Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is a process that fractures rock formations in the earth’s surface in order to release hydrocarbons. When these hydrocarbons are released, they flow more freely through the rocks and up to the wellbore, were oil and gas are extracted to (Suchy, 2012). Not all rock formations require a hydraulic fracturing operation to be done because the fluids move freely through rocks that have been naturally fractured. Shale gas reservoirs on the other hand are not permeable and have very few natural fractures; therefore the trapped gas and oil must be extracted by fracking only.

Fracking is considered one of the most controversial methods of obtaining Earth’s natural gases. It is also known as hydraulic fracturing, which is drilling and introducing fluid (mostly water) into the ground to get certain rocks to produce natural gases. Fracking could cause devastating effects to the environment. According to the article “Hydraulic Fracturing 101” on the web-site earthworks.com, fracking can not only use up a lot of water, but it can also contaminate groundwater. Two to ten million gallons of water can be used to fracture a single well. Also the water used to fracture has many additives, such as hydrochloric acid, that can prove deadly to those who come in contact with them. In “Hydraulic Fracturing 101” it stated that

Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" as it’s commonly called, is a drilling technique utilized for extracting natural gas or oil within deep underground. The process generally combines hazardous chemicals with abundant amounts of water at high rates of pressure into rock formations to crack nearby material to extract gas and oil. Prompted environmental concerns have arose due to the substantial use of fracking in the US, which has modernized the energy industry. Although hydraulic fracturing can be beneficial, it is harmful to our planet because of the gases and chemicals it releases that causes contamination of water, air pollution, and hazards to communities and its people health.

The oil industry in the United States is booming. However, not all oil or natural gasses are available by drilling. There are some oils and gasses trapped inside shale rock. To access these gases, a process called Hydraulic Fracturing, informally known as fracking, was invented. Hydraulic Fracking “is a controversial oil and gas extraction technique developed in the late 1940s to gain access to fossil energy deposits previously inaccessible to drilling operations. The process…literally involves the smashing of rock with millions of gallons of water- along with sand and an undisclosed assortment of chemicals in order to bring gas to the surface. (serc-carelton.edu).” This process combines water, sand, and chemicals