One of the techniques used by the oil industry to find these hidden reserves of "black gold" is to use high-energy vibrations and powerful concussive blasts -- by setting up an array of microphones and using these to feed a huge computational source, the hidden geological formations can be deduced.  It's surprising to me that there was no mention of these energetic exploratory techniques and the triggering of earthquakes.  It's not beyond my imagination to envision a mapping effort like this happening far out at see, which dislodges some underwater shelf (which may have been storing up the tension required for a good earthquake for quite a while), which displaces a few million tons of water, which in turn creates a devastating tsunami.

Of course, this may just be the product of my fluid logic and a desire to crucify those greedy, repressive jerks at the oil companies.

www.earthchangestv.com

Water and Oil Displacement and Earthquakes

New research has established a new technique for extracting oil. Studies show that by shaking the ground it causes what is referred to as "permeability". 'Permeability' is defined as: "the capability of a porous rock or sediment to permit the flow of fluids through its pore spaces."

Earth Changes Media has discovered a credible research project initiated for peer-review which was recently released and is now available for public viewing. This release comes from the University of California at Santa Cruz 'earth sciences' department. It is authored by Professor Emily Brodsky, assistant professor.

"The enhanced permeability caused by seismic shaking could potentially be harnessed to help extract oil from natural reservoirs. Permeability governs how fluid flows through rocks, whether it's water or oil, so this has practical implications for oil extraction," Brodsky said.

Brodsky is co-author of a paper describing the new findings is now published in the scientific journal 'Nature'. The first author is Jean Elkhoury, a graduate student who worked with Brodsky at UCLA, and the other co-author is Duncan Agnew of UC San Diego. The study was based on two decades of data from the Piñon Flat Observatory in southern California, where researchers from UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography maintain an extensive geophysical observatory.

First for our science colleagues: In essence, net extraction of oil and water reduces slightly the average density of the upper crust, causing an isostatic imbalance. The ductile lower crust deforms in response to this imbalance, thus increasing the load on the seismogenic layer, which fails seismically to thicken the crust so as to restore static equilibrium locally. Accordingly, earthquakes near the base of the upper crust may be an expected outcome of major oil production from growing anticlines, irrespective of the depths of the producing formations.

Now in plan English: When thrusting or extracting oil or water, it causes an imbalance in the Earth's crust or mantle. A natural consequence is for the Earth to find its equilibrium (balance) causing a shift in plates or crustal displacement. This is best known to you and me as an "earthquake".