Infographic Category Education

The Science of Earthquakes and Fracking

By | source:Weather Underground Aug 19th, 2015

I am fortunate enough to live in a place where earthquakes are practically non-existent. People who live in earthquake-prone regions, like the epically named Ring of Fire, have to consider and prepare for a whole host of factors that I have never had to bother with.

The science of earthquakes is both fascinating and complicated, even in this over-simplified version. It’s difficult to look at the solid ground that we know so well and imagine that it could ripple like water at the approach of a T-Rex. Our knowledge of how our planet shakes and splits becomes more and more important as these events become more common.

It seems likely that, on top of the general effects we’re having on the planet, human activity has been directly causing earthquakes in some places. The leap in earthquakes in Oklahoma in 2010 is a pretty damning correlation, for my money, and I’m all for a swift and painful transition to renewable energy.

You’ve learned a bit from this infographic about how fracking works, so here’s a pretty in-depth look at the science behind the photovoltaic cells that make up solar panels.