Comments on: Geothermal Energy Project May Have Caused an Earthquake

By: Jessie

Jessie — Thu, 12 May 2011 15:43:09 +0000

gotta agree with Shawn, we have to keep our perspectives right when it comes to geothermal power and its potential "risks". Overall, geo is going to be well worth it in the long run. Guess I'm biased though, we use it in our home for heating and cooling and love it! -Jessie, the flow center girl

By: Margie Melius

Margie Melius — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:34:22 +0000

Absolutely terrifying I felt it in Buffalo

By: shawn

shawn — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:57:48 +0000

The potential socio-economic, political, and global benefits of geothermal power far outweigh even the over-hyped risk. I am certainly interested in scientific before and after statistics. Who say’s that initiating earthquakes is a bad thing? (I have not researched this) In my limited understanding of tectonics, multiple small releases of energy might actually stave off larger more devastating (to urban centers) earthquake events. Thoughts from experts?

Go Geothermal… More power to you!

Also, in my opinion, “greed”, in the business sense, generates innovation. Depending on your perspective and prejudice, this innovation can be either beneficial to the “species”, or detrimental, I simply advise against pointing the finger of blame at greed as a whole.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:14:51 +0000

Let’s keep this in perspective… even standing directly over it, you can barely feel a 2.7 on the Richter scale. It’s a logarithmic scale, so a 5.0, which might cause minor damage, has an amplitude 200 times greater than a 2.7. The USGS estimates that there are over a million earthquakes between 2.0 and 3.0 on the Richter scale in the world each year (http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqstats.html).

By: Neil Lindsay

Neil Lindsay — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:32:41 +0000

One should not forget that one such event does not indicate a trend. One earthquake at any location cannot be blamed on any specific activity, in that the earthquake just might have be ready to occur at that time regardless of any external forces.

If the earthquakes were to continue then there might be some cause for alarm. Until then to blame someone for a specific natural event is very short sighted.

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:31:23 +0000

That’s as crazy as those fools who drilled to tap methane on the sea bed. Frozen methane is stable, but once it warms it is explosively volatile. There could be a chain reaction as the sea bed roils up like an enormous volcano.

How can we make it to the next level as a species if we do such obvious things to destroy ourselves? I understand the ignorance of those who spoil the planet, not knowing the long term implications of their actions. It’s the wanton, brazen stupidity of greedy people that know better who seals our fate.