Earthquakes in Ohio? Never – before fracking. Then, in March 2014, a swarm of 77 earth tremors were recorded in Ohio between March 4-12, 2014. When a magnitude 3 quake shook up a lot of people in nearby towns, state officials shut the well down – and the quakes stopped.

Still, there was doubt and denial on the part of industry officials about whether there really was a direct cause-and-effect relationship between injecting water, sand, and chemicals – under high pressure – into the earth and the swarm of quakes that shook up nearby residents’ sense of well-being. Now a new study published in the January 5, 2015 issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America removes all room for equivocation.
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Fracking, the process of injecting numerous chemicals and millions of gallons of water deep underground under high pressure to fracture hard rock and release trapped natural gas and oil, is a very controversial method of energy extraction which has been associated with many negative side effects. In the United States, it has been found to cause earthquakes, water contamination and a myriad number of health issues.
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Fracking, the increasingly controversial method of extracting gas from underground reserves, is now getting a boost from a change in trespassing laws in the United Kingdom.

The 2014 Queen’s Speech has announced today that an infrastructure and competitiveness bill will change trespassing laws, allowing shale gas exploration firms to drill on private land without the owner’s permission.
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It’s been a shaky 2014 so far across America, with a series of fairly major earthquakes rocking several regions of the continent from North to South.

As Californians were gently shaken from their slumber this morning by a 2.7 magnitude earthquake just after 5:21 AM PST today, we ask whether the "Big One" is looming.

This tremor follows the previous shake-ups that Californians suffered last month, when a chain of seismic events and aftershocks registering up to 5.1 magnitude reminded residents that they live atop some of the world’s most volatile faults, and caused many to stock up on supplies in preparation for the massive earthquakes that geologists have been predicting for some years.
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