Can fracking cause earthquakes? 

I don't understand. If I have a leaking heating oil tank. I have to have a hazmat team come out and take care of the problem at a large cost to me. However, NG companies can forces known toxic elements into the ground without any problems or cost. Hmmmmmm

Pointing out that the energy of frack jobs is significantly lower than a magnitude 5.0 earthquake as proof that fracking can't cause large earthquakes is silly. It's like saying that a lumberjack can't cause a building's roof to collapse with a single swing of his axe. Obviously he can't. But several swings of his axe at a tree next to said building could certainly cause it to fall and crush that building. It's not the energy of the axe swinging that does the damage, it's the pent-up potential energy of the tree, released by his actions. But if it were my building, I wouldn't blame the tree. Or gravity. I'd blame the lumberjack for being an idiot.

I have no proof that fracking can cause large earthquakes in this manner. No one does. But it is an idea worth thoroughly investigating.

Maybe it doesn't but it will poison your drinking water.

Have you ever heard of triggering an earthquake. Earthquakes are caused by tectonic plate movement. When two plates or faults move against each other, they can get snagged and not move any further, but they build up energy. When they get passed the snag. It's like snapping a rubber band. Well the pressure from fracking could cause a minor earthquake that could trigger the faults to pass each other and snap, you have a major earthquake. You can't mess with the laws of physics or mother nature.

Are they fracking under Virginia?

The pressures involved in an Earthquake are massive, so, as the article said, causing a large on is very unlikely. However, there is a possibility of weakling the fault which would hasten a large Earthquake. Then again, it could make the structure of the fault stronger and delay the Earthquake. The problem with Earthquakes is that they are completely unpredictable, so there is absolutely no way to tell if something hastened or delayed one.

@ John - gas prices are remaining stubbornly high because the US exports a significant amount of refined product. So - the oil imports you mention, which certainly put money into terrorist hands, is not done to assure US supply. It's done for oil company profits. Policies about fracking (and it's documented health and earthquake risks) were shaped by the oil industry's corruption of our government through their massive lobbying and campaign money.

Time to face it. We are fracked.

I highly suggest watching "GASLAND" By M. Fox (netflix) ~It's amazing what's going on that "we" don't know about!!!!!

....giving Mother Earth a high pressure, toxic, enema doesn't sound like a good idea to me...perhaps the exec's of the companies doing this as well as their employees and contractors and stockholders along with all their their families should be willing to take the same medicine to show the rest of us just how safe it is....

let us thank bush/cheney for letting big oil companys pollute our earth without any epa regulation...the world as we know it will soon be gone

One of the things that prevent the ground along the fault lines from slipping is friction. The liquids pumped into the fault area lubricate the fault line allowing for slippage. Hence, earthquakes.

The same thing happened in Colorado when they pumped liquid into the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Earthquakes. They stopped pumping in, the earthquakes stopped.

So keep fracking before you know what the consequences...smart,real smart

what the Frak?

If fracking can cause small earthquakes it's not a big leap to imagine a small earthquake triggering a break in a fault resulting in a larger one.

The British did some studies and found a correlation between weak shallow earthquakes and fracking. An energy company in Britain actually accepted fault for causing the instability that resulted in the quakes.

The US Geological Survey has been racking up data and though the data is not complete, the evidence that fracking causes instability is gaining acceptance.

We can thump our chests with the knowledge that our intrusions on the planet are growing in scale and ingenuity. Looks like the planet is starting to thump back. I don't know why anyone would be surprised.

Ask the Swiss. It happened to them. Then they stopped and the seismic activity stopped. so they stopped for good.

In this area of Eastern Ohio(the Marcellus and Utica shale formations), we have gas wells, they have been producing for some 30yrs with no seismic activity. BUT just about 30 miles from here they very recently drilled and fracked 6 new wells. There have been more than three seismic tremors, shakes and rumblings. Also some people who live some 60 miles from here in Western Pa. have had their water contaminated, same as happened to those ranchers in Wyomin, or was it Montana? Those events were featured on TV.

Many here are now beginning to conclude and say, that one can live without checks from gas but one CANNOT live without water!!!

I hope this all turns out to be a temporary series of seismic events, the ground settles and the drilling can continue.

When ever my wife and i are fracking the the kids think there is a earthquake upstairs, so yes fracking can cause an earthquake

Fracking probably doesn't cause earthquakes, but it sure helps.

Its the aquafier, that is the common thread in earthquakes.