The San Andreas Fault has always been an object of concern for experts, as well as a reminder that our Earth is moving and “still alive”. However, a new type of renewable energy has just set off all the alarms in the country, with earthquakes and strange movements underground that experts are studying. The first conclusions have already come to light, and they are not at all reassuring: we explain what is happening and how far the situation could go in the coming months.
This energy is so massive, it could cause earthquakes: How are we mining it
One type of renewable energy that has recently received a lot of attention is geothermal energy, and this is because it seems to be causing more and more regular earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault in California. The conduct of recent research has lent a measure of insight into the cross-pertaining to this type of energy generation and the possible outcomes for the area.
Power stations that use geothermal energy, or the heat coming from within the earth’s surface in the production of electricity, have been in use at the Salton Sea, California for several years. However, a number of researches indicate that these operations may be among major causative factors of such activity along this fault line, the San Andreas.
Injection and extraction of fluids, typically water during the generation of geothermal energy, can instigate the enactment of faults and thus increase the rate of earthquakes. Since the Salton Sea region is occupied by numerous plants with such desalination ability, the total effect of their work has been a cause for concern to different researchers as well as local authorities.
The San Andreas Fault is trembling: Do we have reasons for concern? What experts say
The San Andreas Fault is among the most contemporary and calamitous fault systems in the world, with high possibility of generating dangerous earthquakes. The rise in activity along this fault can have a disastrous impact on the populations in the region with the possibilities of massive devastation, people’s loss and significant infrastructural destruction.
In addition, the population density in the Salton Sea region is high and a life-shaking earthquake of any scale will influence the inhabitants’ ability to transport, communicate, and receive critical services. Potentiality of an extensive scale disaster has become the primary concern among the professionals and the inhabitants of the region
There is an active debate on the correlation between the generation of geothermal energy and frequency of earthquakes along the San Andreas Fault. However, the results are quite convincing, and additional research is required to establish the possible pathways as well as the degree of the increased hazard.
Geothermal energy at San Andreas Fault: The core of huge opportunities (and concerns) for America
Specifically, the part of the SAF that runs from the Salton Sea to Parkfield has been seismically inactive for more than three hundred years. This calmness, therefore, emanates a discomfort feeling of insecurity, there is dampened energy in this seismically inactive area, if released it can hit the neighboring populated cities with devastating effects of an earthquake.
In the effort to describe prehistoric earthquakes on the south San Andreas Fault, researchers looked at earthquake history over the millennium via rocks that are close to the fault. Their conclusion was that the forest experienced an earthquake roughly every 180 years with the variation of 140 and 220 years, and the aforementioned events were associated with excess water in Lake Cahuilla.
To model the role full of a lake played to the fault, the researchers used a computer model they designed. They learned that pressure from high water levels in Lake Cahuilla affected the fault in two manners. The dead weight of the lake water made the tectonic crust under it bend and thus slip and slide on each other, minimizing the interfacial area of the plates.
It is true that the geothermal energy at San Andreas Fault is massive, powerful and abundant, but is it the best place to extract it? Experts disagree, although more say yes. It is something similar to what has been done in Yellowstone, where American eyes usually look with concern (although in this case we do not have so much to fear, except in science fiction movies or alarmist news that we try to dismantle).
