New Safety Guidelines to Reduce Danger of Minor Earthquakes

One of the issues created by hydraulic fracturing is minor earthquakes resulting in severe losses. Researchers have advised new set of safety guidelines to prevent minor earthquakes produced due to hydraulic fracturing.

Researcher Developer Dr Rachel Westwood, Research Fellow Mr Sam Toon, and Emeritus Professor Peter Styles from Keele's School of Geography, Geology and Environment along with Professor Nigel Cassidy who is working at Birmingham University have advised these new points of safety. They have published all the safety strategies for legislative bodies like Governments, environmental agencies, health and safety executives and local planning authorities.

Hydraulic fracturing near Blackpool, United Kingdom for shale gas caused two minor earthquakes in 2014. Dr. Westwood’s aim of this research was to analyze minimum horizontal distance where hydraulic fracturing should take place from pre-existing faults in order to minimize danger of earthquakes.

By: Bhavna Sharma

Content: www.sciencedaily.com