Five more earthquakes recorded in Blackpool - taking number since fracking started to 11
The most powerful, at 1.02pm yesterday, measured 0.5 on the Richter Scale.
It takes the number of ‘quakes recorded since fracking began last Monday to 11.
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Hide AdThere were none in the several months running up to Cuadrilla’s controversial operation getting underway at the fracking site off Preston New Road, Little Plumpton.
Cuadrilla said the British Geological Survey had rounded up from 0.48 – just below the 0.5 threshold imposed by the government that would see fracking halted.
It said: “This is within operating expectations and the sophisticated system of monitoring in place is working as it should.”
The company said fracking would continue today as planned, and added: “As we have said before, local residents should be reassured that the monitoring systems in place are working as they should.
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Hide Ad“These are tiny seismic events that are detected by our monitors as we fracture the shale rock 2km underground and are many hundreds of orders of magnitude below what is capable of being felt, much less cause damage or harm at surface.”
Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, Prof David Smyth, said in a statement released through anti-fracking group Frack Free Lancashire: “While the tremors induced to date are tiny, nevertheless the traffic-light system of monitoring induced seismicity does state that if a magnitude 0.5 event, or greater, is triggered by fracking, then the injection of hydraulic fluid must stop.”
Frack Free Lancashire added: “Seismicity must be monitored closely around the clock if [fracking] is allowed to continue in spite of the cluster of tremors we have seen.”