Will Flooding Trigger the New Madrid Megaquake?

USA FEMA Int'l-New Madrid Fault-Earthquake-Gulf of Mexico by worldpeace2u

Or , Will Big Oil Trigger the New Madrid Megaquake?

by Zen Gardner
Something really fishy, as usual, is going on in the oil industry. And again it's regarding the Gulf.
Several newspapers recently announced that BP was being given permission to restart drilling and would even start new wells in the explosive Macondo region where the last catastrophe was precipitated.
Yes, insane corporate greed at the least. The very least.

On April 4th it was reported:

Oil giant BP plans to restart deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico this summer just a year after the Deepwater Horizon explosion that sparked the worst oil spill in history.
The group hopes to start work on 10 wells in the Gulf after being granted permission by US regulators to continue work halted at the time of the drilling moratorium imposed after the spill.
The move is likely to fuel public anger, coming just a year after the devastating oil spill, which happened when a BP well exploded, killing 11 workers and causing an environmental crisis. Source

Strong Denial

This permission that was reported to have been given by some judge, however, was thereafter adamantly denied, and the articles about this permission seem to have been carefully scrubbed from the net.
Here's the official denial.

The U.S. interior secretary on Monday rejected media reports that BP was striking a deal to resume deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico a year after the worst oil spill in U.S. history. UK media have said BP is in talks with the U.S. government to restart drilling at existing wells less than a year after a blast on the Deepwater Horizon rig ruptured BP's underwater Macondo well.  Source

Makes you wonder all the more.
Don't worry, they'll get their permission. This is "testing the waters" so to speak.

Fact Is It's Already Underway

Every day millions of gallons of oil are being extracted from beneath the Gulf and Mississippi basin, all the way to the heart of the New Madrid fault line through Arkansas on up into Illinois and Indiana.
Not only are oil and natural gas being extracted, but chemically enhanced water is being pumped INTO the rock strata to free up more oil and natural gas in a process called fracking.

Hydraulic fracturing (called "fracking," or "Hydrofracking") is a process that results in the creation of fractures in rocks. The fracturing is done from a wellbore drilled into reservoir rock formations to increase the rate and ultimate recovery of oil and natural gas.
Hydraulic fractures may be natural or man-made and are extended by internal fluid pressure which opens the fracture and causes it to extend through the rock. Natural hydraulic fractures include volcanic dikes, sills and fracturing by ice as in frost weathering. Man-made fluid-driven fractures are formed at depth in a borehole and extend into targeted formations. The fracture width is typically maintained after the injection by introducing a proppant into the injected fluid. Proppant is a material, such as grains of sand, ceramic, or other particulates, that prevent the fractures from closing when the injection is stopped. Source

Double-whammy: Cracking the rock strata while poisoning the water table.

A more telling illustration for what big oil is up to:

The parasitic oil industry destroying the earth like giant mosquitoes, sucking out its life blood while injecting an infected fluid in its place.  Yes, the "invasion" is on and has been for a long time.

Environmental groups have been protesting this horrific poisoning of the water table but in vain. That's how it is when Big Oil is involved--everyone gets bought off;

With little oversight from the federal government, a myriad of chemicals are being injected underground in the name of energy exploration in the West. Among these chemicals, biocides are considered to pose a serious threat to environmental and public health.
Hydraulic fracturing, known as “fracking” or “frac’ing” for short, is the process approximately 90 percent of oil and gas wells in the U.S. undergo to facilitate extraction. Biocides are used to kill microorganisms that can interfere with other fluids and methods used to stimulate extraction, and to prevent corrosion to pipes.
In 2005, the oil and gas industry was granted an exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act, allowing the injection of toxic fluids directly into groundwater without oversight by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Prior to enacting this policy, EPA conducted a study that concludes fracking poses a minimal threat to underground sources of drinking water and determines no further study of fracking is warranted; the study has raised criticism from both inside and outside of the agency. Despite concern from public health professionals and landowners who have experienced tainted water themselves (read Laura Amos’ story), the agency has continued to require minimal regulation of the industry.  Source

A Little Hard to Imagine?

Not when you know who the controllers are and how they're driven. We're talking not just bad, greedy people, but seriously evil intentions on the part of some. Not all, as so many are duped to follow along on the gravy train.
To have a foreknowledge of the potential effects on human life and the health of our planet and to pressure and bribe government agencies to comply to their wishes takes more than just greed. And the underlings just follow.

How The Quake Could Be Triggered

The New Madrid fault line is known to exist in the location in the red zone below, but conjectured to extend all the way into the Gulf of Mexico. It has seen severe quakes in the past, the most recent in recorded history being in 1811-1812 magnitude 7's and 8's.

The 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquakes (pronounced /nuː ˈmædrɨd/) were an intense intraplate earthquake series beginning with an initial pair of very large earthquakes on December 16, 1811. These earthquakes remain the most powerful earthquakes ever to hit the eastern United States.^[1] These events, as well as the seismic zone of their occurrence, were named for the Mississippi River town of New Madrid, Louisiana Territory, now Missouri.
There are estimates that the earthquakes were felt strongly over roughly 130,000 square kilometers (50,000 square miles), and moderately across nearly 3 million square kilometers (1 million square miles). The historic 1906 San Francisco earthquake, by comparison, was felt moderately over roughly 16,000 square kilometers (6,000 square miles). Source

The following map indicates the effect range mentioned above in comparison with the LA quake of 1994.

Pretty severe. This has to do with the nature of the rock under that area that transmits the energy more efficiently than that of the LA and California region.

Fracking Causes Earthquakes

When you drain vast cavities and split the earth underground you're bound to get some repercussions. Especially if it's right along a known fault line.
Concerned locals right on the New Madrid fault line in Arkansas know exactly what this "fracking" is doing and had this to say just a few weeks ago:

News: Arkansas Earthquakes in Greenbrier Increase as Natural Gas Drilling and Fracking Increase!!!

People in the Greenbrier, Arkansas area are certain of one thing: as the drilling and fracking increased in their area so did the earthquakes.  Greenbrier resident, Dirk Deturck lives on a ridge between Guy and Greenbrier.  He was watching the rigs.  As soon as they increased drilling and fracking on the Greenbrier side, then the Greenbrier quakes started increasing in intensity and frequency.  "They feel really different now." Deturck said.  He described the sensation as waves rolling underneath them and when it hit it sounds like a "boom."

He believes the injection wells have a lot to do with the quakes, but blames all of the activity including fracking and compressor stations.  During the snow storm Deturk noticed all gas activity stopped: no compressors running, no drilling, no fracking and no injecting.  Guess what?  He said he looked at USGS data and there were no earthquakes for three days following the snow.

He also noticed a cluster of small quakes on the Tennessee side of the Mississippi River the same day as some larger ones in Greenbrier.  He feared the gas production could trigger a "big one" and possibly set off the New Madrid Fault.  We've had many assurances from experts from AGS that that will PROBABLY never happen, but still they tell us to make plans for emergency preparedness.  Interesting. Source

The Connection Between the Gulf and the New Madrid Fault Line

Enter Jack Reed

Jack Reed is a retired Texaco geologist-geophysist who doesn't accept the widely held opinions regarding the New Madrid fault lines or a "passive gulf".
No wonder he's one of a very few voices. Today's science is made to fit the corporate and political need, not the other way around.

According to him, the Gulf was and is tectonically active -- and it is the likely origin for not only the New Madrid seismic activity, but also for the Middleton Place-Summerville seismic zone near Charleston, S.C. (Aug.2010)

 

"For all the years I have worked the Gulf of Mexico Basin I have been forced to accept the 'passive' Gulf formation theory, which holds that the only movement in the basin is updip sedimentary loading that moved the salt southward," Reed said. "But there is little evidence to support this theory, and it doesn't fit what is observed geologically or geophysically."

 

"This entire zone through the United States is suffering some type of tectonic activity that I believe is tied to the deeply buried tectonics in the Gulf of Mexico" Source

And they want to keep drilling there? Yes.

The methane bulge noted on this map that appeared following the Deepwater Horizon explosion is in direct line with the New Madrid fault. And you think they don't know what they're doing? Pretty hard to believe. At the least it's criminal irresponsibility.

And now the "Great Central U.S. Shakeout?

So, while drilling continues the authorities are going to have some preparedness drills. Go figure.
They even have a website. Surreal.

Two of Indiana’s earthquake preparedness drills, the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut scheduled for 19 April, and a training program in May for emergency management and response agencies are receiving increased interest following the devastating quake in Japan.
Hoosiers do have good reason to be prepared. Experts say it is only a matter of when, not if, Indiana will be rocked by a major earthquake emanating from the New Madrid or Wabash Valley seismic zone.
The Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) stated: “The probability for an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or greater in the central U.S. is fairly significant in the near future, with a 25 to 40 percent chance of occurring in any 50-year time period.” A quake with a magnitude of 7 to 8, the consortium warned, “could result in great loss of life and property damage in the billions of dollars.” Source

And the drilling continues...

...and soon to the volcanic Macondo area again.

Hold on.
-Zen
www.zengardner.com