Quote:
Originally Posted by nkowi
How about this one? (it's the first one, by the way)
So What is it?
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside.
Is this not factual?
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Haha! Even that one is not completely correct. Better stated as:
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of injecting fluid and suspended solids into a well at a high pressure, in order to fracture rock and thus increase the permeability of a petroleum bearing strata in the vicinity of the well.
I got an undergrad degree in Geology 30 odd years ago. Hydraulic fracturing was a common practice at that time. "Fracking" was an evolution of the much older (and less controllable, more hazardous) practice of "shooting" wells with nitroglycerin. I never worked in oil and gas (I gladly yield the floor to comments from qualified petroleum geologists) but as I recall it primarily involves sand and water. The water creates the pressure, and the sand serves to fill in and wedge open the resulting fractures. The "chemicals" that cause so much panic, are for the most part pretty common and naturally occurring things whose purpose is to adjust the specific gravity/viscosity of the sand/water mix so the sand stays in suspension until it winds up where it is intended. Pretty sure no $multi-billion$ oilfield service company is going to risk jeopardizing its profits by selling regulated hazardous substances when there is plenty of inert stuff that works as well or better. All kind of a cool exercise in physics, if you ask me.
These people that get all worked up about this stuff are idiots.