Essay On Fracking

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Checked by William Barton Chad Miller The Fringe Topic # 64 Fracking Introduction Hydraulic fracturing also known as fracking, is a way to collect some oil natural gas that are in some rocks deep below the surface of the earth.1 This process is done by drilling wells and then injecting water, that contains a few things like sand, at a high pressure down the well that was drilled. What happens here is the rocks, that contains our precious oil and natural gas, become cracked and the sand keeps these cracks open and allows the oil and natural gas to come up to the surface of the earth. 2 Figure 1: This diagram shows that there are several different layers of earth. The layer that has our oil and natural gas in it happens to be down quite a ways, even thousands of feet. This oil and natural gas can be collected by cracking the rocks with water at high pressure. Description of technology and how it works. This process takes place on wells that are already drilled. The land must be cleared around where the well is located. Water is then pumped into the well at extremely high pressure. When water is sent this deep at high pressure, it causes the rocks in the shale formation layer, found in Figure 1, to crack. This layer is where oil and natural gas is found. When the rocks crack they release the oil and natural gas inside them. The water now has some natural gas and oil in it and can come back to the surface where it is to be separated. This can only be done because of the ability to drill horizontally. These wells go down very far into this layer and then the drill is able to make a turn so that it is drilling parallel with the ground. This increases the surface area of the contact that the water at high pressure has with the sh... ... middle of paper ... ...remely expensive. But natural gas is a very clean alternative to oil and gasoline. Is natural gas really worth the cost that it takes to obtain it? Bibliography 1. http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/tag/fracking/ 2. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/top-10-myths-about-natural-gas-drilling-6386593#slide-1 3. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/top-10-myths-about-natural-gas-drilling-6386593#slide-3 4. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120806093929.htm 5. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/top-10-myths-about-natural-gas-drilling-6386593#slide-2 6. http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/top-10-myths-about-natural-gas-drilling-6386593#slide-7 7. http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/tag/fracking/ 8. http://rt.com/usa/157312-fracking-banned-california-hills/

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