Environmental Research Foundation  [Printer-friendly version]
October 2, 2009

CARBON SEQUESTRATION AND EARTHQUAKES IN NEW JERSEY

By Peter Montague

It is well-known that pumping liquids into the ground under pressure
can trigger earthquakes, which are called "induced earthquakes."

Here are the closing paragraphs of a story from the New York Times
April 14, 2009):

"Leonardo Seeber, a research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory at Columbia University, is not sure about the Sichuan
earthquake, but he believes that scientists and officials need to take
more account of the risk of induced earthquakes....

"In the coming years, the proposed strategy to reduce global warming
by capturing carbon dioxide from power plants and pumping it into the
ground could create new earthquake risks.

"So far, experiments in this kind of carbon sequestration have focused
on whether it will work to keep carbon dioxide out of the air for
centuries. But Dr. Seeber said this technology 'has huge implications
for triggering earthquakes.'"

Is New Jersey subject to earthquakes?

According to the Trenton Times Feb. 17, 2009: two small earthquakes
struck North Jersey within 2 weeks of each other during February,
2009. The first struck Feb. 2 with a magnitude of 3.0 on the Richter
scale and the second Feb. 14 with a magnitude of 2.4.

The New York Times Feb. 3, 2009, said the quake on Feb. 2 had its
epicenter in Morris County and was felt in Rockaway, Dover, and Morris
Plains. The Times said, "In Dover, N.J., near the quake's epicenter,
Francis Rodriguez was playing cards with a friend when, she said, 'it
felt like something exploded underground.'"

According to the Trenton Times Feb. 17, 2009: the quake that struck
Feb. 14 was centered 3 miles from Boonton, N.J. Police in Montville
said, "The initial reports came in as an explosion or some sort of
loud bang."

The Feb. 14 quake was about 2 kilometers, or 1.2 miles, deep, in a
"zone of weakness" along "the trace of the Ramapo fault," according to
Won-Young Kim, senior research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth
Observatory in Palisades, N.Y. (http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~wykim/)

The Trenton Times said, "The almost back-to-back jolts, though
centered several miles apart, are worth watching, experts say."

"Two earthquakes of considerable size, in two weeks, that is unusual,"
Kim said.

The New York Times (Feb. 3, 2009) reported that, "An earthquake with a
magnitude of 2 hit Phillipsburg, N.J., on July 28 [2008?]. A 2.6
magnitude quake struck Sussex County, N.J., on Feb. 17, 2006, and
another quake, with a magnitude of 2.1, hit Morris County on Dec. 10,
2005.

The Trenton Times reported that, "The last big tremor in New Jersey
was a 5.5 magnitude in 1884, though on a scale of 1 to 8, with eight
considered a "great" quake, it is actually deemed moderate. The 1884
tremor toppled chimneys in New York City and New Jersey and cracked
masonry as far away as Hartford, Conn., and West Chester, Pa.,
according to the United States Geological Survey."