Earthquakes and oil...a question..

After all that's een happening in the world of quakes and oil, a question came to mind and one that has been teasing me for a few days now.

It's not something that we're taught and I'd have a bit of a hard time trying to find the exact info I need to answer the question, so I thought I'd come to the best place to get an answer.

The question is, why is there no oil field erruptions after or during an earthquake?

We all know how plates shift and move to make earthquakes and we know that the ground can crack wide open so why have we never seen a natural disaster along the lines of the gulf oil spill we are currently experiencing through our own fault (no pun intended).

You'd think that oil was regularly seeping through the cracks, especially with the size of some of these quakes. If it has happened in Earths history, it makes me wonder just how nature deals with such a problem.

When you consider the ring of fire and the immense pressures at the bottom of the ocean all bearing strain upon possible oil fields, you'd think you would get massive oil spills rather regularly..

I hope someone can shed some light on my question..

I was wondering this too! It's confusing. You would think oil would be gushing out after a major earthquake, depending on the location...? Tried searching this but most search results try to link drilling for oil to earthquakes occuring afterwards, not vice versa...hmm. Hope someone else can shed some light on this...

Oil does regularly and throughout history leak from sea floor. One must remember that one day to humans is like 10,000 days to earth. So just because is modern history we don't have evidence of major oil releases doesn't mean that it hasn't happened.

I think it is the magnitude of leak and media attention that makes this so palpable. But good question nonetheless.

AAC

I saw a post where someone suggested that oil was the Earth's natural lubricant during earthquakes, so what will happen after the oil in a certain area (the gulf off florida) begins to be depleted and the pressure underneath loses its pressure. Will the damage be worse, is one of the questions.

reply to post by AnAbsoluteCreation


Yes, I don't doubt it has and does happen. It's most probably one of the ways that oil was discovered (without going into the history of it)

But let's consider how we extract oil and the pressures of the earths crust and sea water for a moment.

One technique we use is to pump gas or water into an oil field in order to extract the liquid. This obviously changes the pressure inside the oil chamber.
Now imagine what is going on with the oil well in the gulf.

We would be crushed to nothingness if we were to stand at that well, so the ocean and the Earths crust plus the oil field itself must be exerting massive pressures from all directions.

As the oil is squeezed out under its own pressure, surely sea water must be seeping in considering the pressure. This would effectively make the oil pump out faster.

There has to come a point where the sea floor must be under immense strain as the pressurised oil field is no longer under the same constant. This example can be seen more easily on your cars braking system. We use hydraulic 'oil' in our brake lines instead of water.. water just does not maintain the same pressure.

So why are we not seeing collapsed land (either above the surface or under)? We occasionaly get sink holes collapsing and even mines collapse.

Is drilling for oil actually increasing Earthquake activity? Do we not see these major natural oil leaks because we are drilling for it and we are releasing some strain? We are still left with the original question though.. and one that might take a while to answer... unless a bright spark comes along and lights the whole thing up

I believe we have had big releases but not on the scale of GOM and the reason is the location and amount of drilling needed to tap into these super cavities. I could also elaborate on how OIL acts as a geo balancing or compass fluid that keeps the Earths rotation properly aligned. Sorry for the grammar it's hard to explain this one with correct terminology.

reply to post by jeffrybinladen


I understand you perfectly...
It's the same as the white of an egg keeping the yolk balanced, or the fluid in your ear which tells your brain which way up you are..

Why YES excellent, your first premise even moreso, obviously a matter great discussion can be held.