l4mbch0ps t1_jdl2qrr wrote on March 25, 2023 at 4:23 AM

Reply to comment by GeoGeoGeoGeo in The largest recorded earthquake in Alberta's history was not a natural event, but most likely caused by disposal of oilsands wastewater, new research has concluded. by GeoGeoGeoGeo

The last paragraph is sort of missing the mark though - the whole idea would be about releasing the quake earlier so its smaller than the future natural quake.

Not saying that the practice would work, but that paragraph doesn't represent the issue well, imo.

LadyAstronaut t1_jdlakru wrote on March 25, 2023 at 5:52 AM

But would the lubricant make it worse thus counter acting the benefit of triggering the quake sooner?

[deleted] t1_jdllzup wrote on March 25, 2023 at 8:35 AM

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RekindlingChemist t1_jdm6n39 wrote on March 25, 2023 at 12:56 PM

first paragraph is missing the mark too, IMO. think about thousands of pressure cookers exploding at various pressures. it's not that "it's never enough explosions to prevent big one", it's more "there's always some strong enough cooker to blow at much bigger pressure". And lubricating should work much like safety valve, lowering pressure on which blowing occurs at every single cooker.

mortaneous t1_jdmgmhv wrote on March 25, 2023 at 2:21 PM

The problem is also that you can't necessarily control the magnitude of your induced earthquake. There would always be a chance that trying to trigger a bunch of M4's would accidentally get you an unexpected M5 or M6, and it's likely that the chance is unacceptably high given the number of quakes you have to induce to release enough energy for preventing the bigger ones.