3 ms·
There's a lot of people in this thread who see "North Korea" and "nuclear test" and get fired up but would otherwise shrug if it were instead, say, "Oklahoma" a
by BigTTYGothGF 8d ago
There's a lot of people in this thread who see "North Korea" and "nuclear test" and get fired up but would otherwise shrug if it were instead, say, "Oklahoma" and "fracking".
The supplemental information is available and says:
> Our earthquake catalog consists primarily of small events with magnitudes of < 2.0
and there were 1399 of them.
The cited Ren&al says:
> The magnitudes of these seismic events primarily range from 1.5 to 2.5
and that there were 647 of them.
USGS (https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/earthquake-and-energy-comparisons-updated-2025 https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/earthquake-and-energy-comp...) says that a magnitude 2.0 earthquake is the equivalent energy of 56kg of explosives, which is more than I'd want to be around but I think for people who actually use the stuff it's not a lot.
- cranberryjoe 8d ago[flagged]
- throe844949 8d ago[dead]
- floralhangnail 8d agoOklahoma hasn't threatened to nuke anyone.....yet.
- QuercusMax 8d agoBut they did bomb their own people in the Tulsa Race Massacre
- kfkdmdndndn 8d ago[flagged]
- phoghed 8d agofresh account just for this bitchmade comment lmao. close call, I almost engaged with it earnestly
- QuercusMax 8d agoLol, also the only use of nuclear weapons in war was over 80 years ago, so I'm not sure what their point even is aside from being a moronic racist
- nkingsy 8d agonono the state is the only thing that counts. Not the country the state is in or the cities in the state.
- throe844949 8d agoOklahoma is part of US, and there were several threats! Just a few months ago against Iran!
- tecleandor 8d agoNot Oklahoma but Trump has made nuclear threats from Maryland this summer...
- NikolaNovak 8d ago(Not to be contrarian, but I rather thought usa has recently and repeatedly threatened to bomb and nuke countries into stone age... And in fact went significant way through that effort over last few months, to the tune of some $40bil or so, for no clear, consistent, rational, elucidated reason whatsoever. And of course, rather famously, is the only country that actually deployed nuclear weapons against other people). I don't necessarily disagree with your underlying point mind you, but USA isn't what it used to be internationally, if it ever truly was. "Oklahoma / USA are peaceful, predictable. rational political entities" is a rather laughable point to try to make today :-/
- mathgeek 8d agoTechnically, Oklahoma is on the short list of locations that _have_ detonated a nuclear bomb on their enemies in wartime.
- killingtime74 7d agoIsn't the US literally the only country to ever use a nuke against humans?
- pjc50 8d agoWhen gas extraction caused earthquakes in Groenignen, this site was very clear on prioritizing fossil fuel extraction over a few small tremors.
- asdff 8d agoWhat's a little permanent undermining of unknown scope across wide swaths of developed area if it means a decade or two of profitability over the working life of the well? I mean have you even considered the shareholders interests?
- asdff 8d agoThis threw me into a rabbit hole for a bit. Apparently there is good evidence that a lot of historical earthquakes in california were due in part at least to the oil industry, which early on would not replace pumped out oil with water. Now a days they claim they replace the oil with water and all is well. However, as anyone who has owned an ancient used car and has switched from conventional to synthetic motor oil would tell you, there's no way that would work. The assumption is that these voids the oil are in are these hermetically sealed vaults such that one can simply pump in more volume of liquid and balance out pressures. That seems like a big assumption to me. Water is obviously not nearly so viscous as crude oil. It will seep in situations where crude will not. It's probably leaking out like a sieve if its really choss all the way down in California. The oil as it is isn't even very well contained given how common tar seeps are. Agriculture probably also plays a role. Central valley has sunken what is it 20-25 feet now from historic ground levels? Same issue as a void generated by an atomic test or oil extraction, one would imagine. Mining probably also plays a decent role. Really anything involving removal or non like for like replacement of structural substrate from the ground is probably liable to be associated with seismic activity. Kind of depressing a realization if this is the case, like we've screwed ourselves with not just the air but the ground we stand on too. You can't really get that stability back without all this new potential energy leaving the system in the form of stuff falling down and new quakes and plates breaking loose and budging a bit more.
- Melatonic 8d agoWhat kind of earthquakes in California ?
- s5300 8d ago[dead]
- antonvs 8d ago> Mining probably also plays a decent role. In the Johannesburg area in South Africa, gold mining has produced up to half of all gold ever extracted in the world, with mines reaching depths of 4000m. This has resulted in frequent seismic events, in the 2.0 to 3.0 range on the Richter scale, occurring on a daily or weekly basis, more occasionally reaching 5.0. This started around 1906 and still continues today. See: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674775515301852 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S167477551...
- loeg 8d agoIt's simple, really. Fracking has offsetting pro-social benefits in a way that NK possessing nuclear weapons does not.
- antonvs 8d ago“Pro-social” is a strange way to describe something that’s actively contributing to the death of our civilization.
- ch4s3 8d agoLooked at another way, shale natural gas has largely displaced coal which emits more CO2 and can be burned in the same power plants. This base load allows for more wind and solar. Natural gas is a great bridge fuel.
- loeg 8d ago> and can be burned in the same power plants I don't believe nat gas is burned in the same plants as coal.
- horsawlarway 8d agoMost "closed coal plants" in the US are really plants that retrofitted to use nat gas. here's a decent recap (now a couple years out of date) https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44636 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44636
- loeg 7d agoAh, cool.
- ch4s3 8d agoIt’s a straightforward retrofit.
- Dylan16807 8d ago
- someguynamedq 8d agoYes, and isn't it obvious why?
- BigTTYGothGF 8d ago[flagged]
- FireHorseAutumn 8d agoFracking doesn't result in potential nuclear fallout or the likes of Seoul or Tokyo being held hostage.
- seinvak 8d agoWell oil is definitely the reason countries like Iraq or Venezuela have been held hostage by America.
- horsawlarway 8d agoSure - but the content and intent of the article is clearly about understanding the geographic conditions that lead to sustained seismic activity, when that's not what our models currently predict. And it's hardly like we're "super concerned about the tests because of the test itself" here... given we've triggered nearly 1000 underground nuclear blasts in the US alone, across several states (at least 6). So... yeah - a relatively unstable state gaining nuclear capabilities sucks, but the interesting part of the discussion in the article is why we're seeing activity years after the testing.
- ls-a 8d ago[dead]