Sunday, December 12, 2021

Two more quakes rattle central Kansas just days after a larger tremor hit the area



Mitchell Willetts
Sun, December 12, 2021

Two earthquakes shook central Kansas overnight, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and Kansans could certainly feel it.

A magnitude 3.8 earthquake was detected shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, about 4 miles west-southwest of Gypsum, and 13 miles south-southeast of Salina, according to the USGS. At least 98 people reported feeling the earthquake to the USGS.

A milder earthquake, magnitude 2.5, shook the area about one hour earlier, data shows.

Both quakes came just days after a 4.3 tremor rocked Gypsum the morning of Dec. 8, McClatchy News reported. More than 250 people reported feeling it at the time, with one Twitter user saying it shook their house and knocked things over.

While earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.5 or greater are “often felt,” it takes a magnitude of at least 5.5 to cause damage to buildings, according to Michigan Tech.



Fracking in Kansas

The Kansas Corporation Commission is responsible for regulating fracking in Kansas. The commission enforces regulations on the following: Monitoring of potential seismic effects of fluid injection The reporting and disclosure of the types of fluids used in fracking, at what volume, and a description of each chemical additive used in fracking
https://ballotpedia.org/Fracking_in_Kansas

Areas of Activity

As of May 2017, there were 1,039 horizontal wells that were hydraulically fractured. In 2016, Kansas had 93,464 producing oil and gas wells. According to the Kansas Geological Survey, approximately 244,000 oil and gas wells were drilled in Kansas from 1947 to 2011. Of that total, approximately 57,000 wells—23.4 percent of all wells—were hydraulically fractured. The map to the left shows known oil and gas fields in Kansas as of May 2017. The map to the right shows the location of hydraulically fractured horizontal wellsas of January 2015. Read more







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