A magnitude 2.9 earthquake has been recorded near the UK’s only active shale gas site in Lancashire.
It is the third recorded in less than a week, coming after another earthquake with a magnitude of 2.1, measured at the Little Plumpton site on Saturday, which itself followed another tremor measuring 1.6 on Wednesday.
Local residents have described the impact of the quake. Samantha Wheeler, who lives five miles away, told the BBC her “wardrobe shook and her bed moved” and added: “It's getting really worrying.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Heather Goodwin said: “The walls of my house shook, there was a really deep, guttural roar.” She asked: “How long before there's real damage done and people injured?”
The latest quake, which was recorded yesterday morning, is stronger than those that forced Cuadrilla to suspend test fracking in 2011. The company said it was investigating the tremor and said no fracking was being carried out at the time.
Drilling had only been resumed in October after it was suspended at the site in 2011 following earthquakes of 1.4 and 2.3 magnitude.
Cuadrilla's chief executive, Francis Egan, said the company now measured “surface ground motion vibration” which allowed it to put any seismic activity “into context”. He said he “sincerely hoped” fracking would not be stopped this time.
Government guidelines state that if fracking causes quakes above 0.5 magnitude then all drilling must cease for 18 hours but the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) said the current suspension could be longer.
The OGA said it wanted to assess whether Cuadrilla's fracking plans “continued to be appropriate to manage the risk” of increased seismic activity in the area.
Fracking is a method in which liquid is pumped underground at high pressure to fracture shale rock and release gas or oil.
The Daily Mail says fracking can cause earthquakes “by introducing water to faultlines, lubricating the rocks and making them more likely to slip”.
Environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth has called for a complete fracking ban after the latest tremors.
A spokesman said it was “getting out of hand,” adding: “It's clearly not under control and at this point there is only one thing that can fix this situation: a ban, right now.”
-
Judges: Threatened for ruling against TrumpFeature Threats against federal judges across the U.S. have surged since Donald Trump took office
-
The census: Why Trump wants a new oneFeature Donald Trump is pushing for a 'Trumpified census' that excludes undocumented immigrants
-
Voting Rights Act: Dying a slow deathFeature 60 years after it was signed into law, the Voting Rights Act is being gutted by Republicans and the Supreme Court
-
The pros and cons of frackingPros and Cons New PM Liz Truss could revive controversial practice ‘within days’ due to Britain's energy woes
-
Shell’s North Sea oil U-turn: ‘a first victory in a longer war’?Speed Read Controversy after oil giant pulls out of proposed Cambo project
-
Fires, floods and storms: America’s ‘permanent emergency’ has begunSpeed Read This summer of climate horror feels like the ‘first, vertiginous 15 minutes of a disaster movie’, says The New York Times
-
Hot air and empty rhetoric: is the UK acting too slowly on climate change?Speed Read ‘Every day, new evidence accumulates that humanity is on an unsustainable path’
-
Germany floods: what led to this ‘once-in-a-century’ disaster?Speed Read Nearly 200 people died in Germany and Belgium; hundreds are still unaccounted for
-
Penguin colony at risk as Somerset-sized iceberg bears down on British overseas territorySpeed Read Several species face starvation if the icy giant blocks access to feeding grounds
-
‘Full of hot air’: climate experts exposed as academia’s most frequent flyersSpeed Read Study results trigger calls for environmentalists to ‘look in the mirror’
-
Mystery of millions of migrating birds dropping dead from US skiesSpeed Read Some experts believe the West Coast wildfires may be to blame for ‘unprecedented’ mass bird deaths in New Mexico
