Swiss Geologist On Trial For Causing Earthquakes 258
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that Markus Haering's company had been working with the authorities in Basel, Switzerland to try to convert the heat in deep-seated rocks into electricity, but the project was suspended in 2006 when drilling triggered earthquakes, one of them with a magnitude of 3.4, leading Haering's company to pay out $9M in damages. Haering's team planned to drill a series of holes penetrating up to 3 miles (4.8 km) underground with water being pumped onto rocks with a temperature of more than 195C. Basel's location on top of a fault line – the upper Rhine trench – had been deliberately chosen because the heat was closer to the Earth's surface. A risk assessment has since shown that the prospect of further quakes is too high to continue drilling in the city. Haering faces up to five years in prison if the judge finds he intentionally damaged property. Haering has admitted the 3.4 magnitude earthquake was stronger than he had expected and that his team 'had very little knowledge of seismicity' before starting to drill, but called the quakes 'a learning process for everyone involved.' Despite Haering's trial, the Swiss appetite for geothermal projects has not diminished. Engineers are beginning preliminary drilling in Zurich to see whether that area was suitable for a similar scheme, and St. Gallen, in eastern Switzerland, plans to start work on its own geothermal project next year. Drilling efforts are being closely watched in the US, where the energy department is sponsoring more than 120 geothermal energy projects in several states."
Blahgh (Score:4, Funny)
Hey, gotta break a few eggs (and dishes) to make an omelet.
Re:Blahgh (Score:5, Informative)
Basel is EGS's "Altamont Pass". Altamont Pass was a wind farm that gave wind turbines their (undeserved) reputation as being bird killers. They built a wind farm right in the middle of a bird flyway, using low, fast-spinning turbines. It was a learning experience; nobody would be stupid enough to do that again.
It's the same thing with EGS and earthquakes. In Basel, they deliberately fractured an active fault that had previously destroyed the city. Nobody is going to be dumb enough to do that again.
Re:Blahgh (Score:5, Funny)
When it comes to being dumb, never say never!
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It was 25 years ago, and it was "A View To A Kill" (A James Bond movie)
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Re:Blahgh (Score:5, Funny)
Nobody is going to be dumb enough to do that again.
I bet somebody once said that about people rebuilding cities on top of active faults.
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Re:Blahgh (Score:5, Insightful)
I respectfully disagree. After living in the pacific northwest and experiencing numerous earthquakes firsthand, I can say with some authority that any structure built in a tectonically active region that cannot safely handle a 3.4 magnitude earthquake was built improperly.
There were several 3.5ish earthquakes in Oregon where I lived over the last 20 years and as far as I know, broken picture frames were the extent of the damage. Geothermal energy production only makes sense in places where volcanic or tectonic activity is likely. It's not without risk either.
It seems obvious that there was no intentional earthquake caused, but that was the natural result of fracturing the fault and 3.4 hardly sounds noteworthy. However, more detailed seismic study seems warranted before moving forward with any such project in the future.
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I live in Southern California, near Los Angeles. Around here, at least, magnitude 3.4 quakes are hardly worth mentioning. Instead of fining this company, the city should thank them for the object lesson they provided about why you don't ignore well-known earthquake safety techniques when you're building over or near a fault line.
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FTA
My guess is at least some of the "damaged" buildings were around 653 years old.
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Quakes at that level are real E-ticket rides, aren't they? I was less than five miles from "ground zero" for the Northridge Quake at a gaming party that was just starting to break up anyway. Five minutes or so after it ended, we finally got the front door to the apartment open and we could still hear the swimming pool sloshing, but there was no damage except for the stuck door. I on
Re:Blahgh (Score:5, Insightful)
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I can say with some authority that any structure built in a tectonically active region that cannot safely handle a 3.4 magnitude earthquake was built improperly.
Well, it depends on how deep the quake is. If it's of any depth at all, you're not going to notice a 3.4 quake even if you're standing on the epicentre. But if a 3.4 quake were to happen, say, 20 km underfoot, you might have issues. In many ways the perceptual scale is a more useful human measure.
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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Albert Einstein
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"Bird killers" makes it sound so evil. Call them "Automated Dinosaur Culling Devices" and public acceptance will soar. Open a KFC underneath preferably with a large net on the roof and the natural cycle will be complete.
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Re:Blahgh (Score:4, Interesting)
I makes me wonder... I'm no geologist by any measure, but there's obviously pressure built up in that area. Wouldn't drilling holes to break holds and release some of that plate pressure by causing smaller quakes be a preferred course of action? Would it either be that or waiting for one giant major natural shift that could cause even more damage?
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This is a neat idea. You could even schedule the things so they are the most convenient. Like inducing labor!
Re:Blahgh (Score:4, Insightful)
Would it either be that or waiting for one giant major natural shift that could cause even more damage?
No good deed goes unpunished?
If you leave it alone and a natural disaster happens, you can't really sue God. If you drill and make mini-quakes and someone's windows break, you can definitely sue the driller.
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If you leave it alone and a natural disaster happens, you can't really sue God.
No, but you can put in a coupon for a McDonalds McFlurry into the collection plate instead of the usual fiver next Sunday...
Re:Blahgh (Score:4, Interesting)
If you leave it alone and a natural disaster happens, you can't really sue God. If you drill and make mini-quakes and someone's windows break, you can definitely sue the driller.
Makes me wonder. This is not the first time it's been believed that drilling triggered an earthquake. How long until you can sue because the city didn't pay for drillers to relieve pressure and major earthquake occurs.
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lol (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, I agree, indeed this is the whole point of an LLC. LLCs are horribly abused quite routinely. I often observe that chemical companies should really be charged with manslaughter for some of their pollutants. *But* a serious research project that happens to "break a few eggs" should really be let slide.
A reasonable compromise might be awarding shares in this company to the damaged cities and the Swiss national science funding body, so the company current backers face dilution as punishment, but no imme
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continuing in your sentance to be pedantic
Clever! But I will not be so easily lured into your trap.
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If you get my drift (Score:3, Funny)
But cooling the earth's core would halt continental drift. Did anyone think of that? And then where would we be? Screwed, that where.
People just don't think these things through.
Here we go... (Score:5, Funny)
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Fault: (geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other; "they built it right over a geological fault"; "he studied the faulting of the earth's crust"
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Double Whoosh!
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"Moria. You fear to go into those mines. The geologists dug too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum...lawsuit trolls..."
Learning process? (Score:2, Funny)
We learned that causing earthquakes costs 9 million dollars and a 5 year stretch. I had always wondered.
No, me! ME! (Score:5, Funny)
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Calm down, Dick. Why can't you just go do some motivational speaking tours like your buddy George?
Damages? (Score:5, Insightful)
These villagers were scamming the poor guy. $9 million in damages from a *3.4* quake? Cripes, a bus crossing in front of my house is close to 3.4... either their houses are made from eggshells, or this is the scam of the century.
I'd feel terrible if useful research was suspended because of profiteering townsfolk.
Eggshell defense (Score:4, Informative)
These villagers were scamming the poor guy. $9 million in damages from a *3.4* quake? Cripes, a bus crossing in front of my house is close to 3.4... either their houses are made from eggshells, or this is the scam of the century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggshell_skull
Translation/application: if you demonstrate negligence and cause an earthquake, even if everyone's houses are made of chewing gum and paper- you're responsible for the damage, because had you not done what you did, the damage wouldn't have happened.
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You forgot, that if you did not know that the houses were made of eggshells, and it is generally assumed that houses are not made of eggshells, that this would rather be a nasty trap, and that the lawsuit would in that case be a scam tactic.
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FWIW, I'd bet a well-designed chewing-gum-and-paper house is more earthquake resistant than some of the concrete-steel-and-wood houses. At the very least, it'd be cheaper to build, assuming a a very large army of gum chewers, thus resulting in reduced liability for damages.
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either their houses are made from eggshells, or this is the scam of the century.
I don't think GP meant that the guy shouldn't pay, just that it seems highly suspect that there is so much damage to be paid for.
I have no experience with quakes, so I'm just going by what GP said as to what a 3.4 quake would do.
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3.4 magnitude is really small. Any significant structural damage is likely the fault of the design of those structures. Any building, whether in a tectonically active region or not should be designed and built to meet a minimum standard for safety. I don't know where that line should be, but in this case I would say the engineer shouldn't be culpable. $9M is a lot of damages for such a tiny earthquake.
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"I don't know where that line should be, but in this case I would say the engineer shouldn't be culpable."
The engineer should be culpable because he was willfully negligent. If you inject fluids into a fault zone you tend to generate earthquakes. This is undergraduate level geology knowledge.
Re:Eggshell defense (Score:4, Insightful)
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This is a different tech than most of Iceland's geothermal: EGS. Most of Iceland's geothermal is from natural reservoirs (although Iceland is starting to move in the direction of EGS, too).
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I know nothing about Europe or Seismic Scales... But, if that is correct, then WTF?
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Not to mention that we can't predict when an earthquake will strike or what magnitude it will be. Yet here they are, claiming that he willfully damaged property? I can't even fathom reckless disregard for safety in this context, but willful destruction? Can I sue palmreaders for willful damage of my self-esteem?
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The only person at fault here is the local building code, if they let people inhabit buildings that can't withstand anything less than a 5.0 on the Richter. (Assuming that the people who filed for damages actually had damages... which I highly doubt.)
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I can't even fathom reckless disregard for safety in this context, but willful destruction?
If he had reason to believe that his tests could cause an earthquake, yet proceeded anyway, that's willful. It doesn't matter that causing destruction wasn't actually his goal. You can't get away from the consequences of your actions -- in particular those you were aware of in advance -- by writing them off as "undesirable side-effects" or "collateral damage".
Though in TFA he says those involved in the project had "
Re:Damages? (Score:4, Insightful)
Some parts of the world are more used to earthquakes than others, and plan accordingly. I'm guessing (from a quick glance at your blog) that you're in the USA - western? Your houses are probably designed to be quake-proof, and a 3.4 quake will do nothing but rattle your plates. Here in Europe most housing is traditional stone, and earthquakes are something that happens in far-flung corners of the Earth.
Disclaimer - I don't know how severe a 3.4 quake is, maybe it really is inconsequential - but my point still stands in that it probably caused the residents of Basel to shit themselves. (Far from villagers, too, BTW)
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either their houses are made from eggshells, or this is the scam of the century.
Eh, not really. 3.4 may be a fairly trivial earthquake, but $9 million is a pretty trivial amount for total damages to a decent-sized city from an earthquake. You don't need very many office buildings with broken windows or extremely old (and thus not in any way quake-proof) buildings to be slightly damaged across a city to equal $9mil. If the epicenter was nearby, and it sounds like it was, then that doesn't strike me as unr
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Village? Basel city has a population of about 170,000 [...]
There, fixed that for you. Damn commas, always jumping around and hanging upside-down.
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In most European countries, 170,000 means 170.000. ' is a perfectly valid delimiter.
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The GGP wrote "170'000", not "170.000" or "170,000" though. I'm not aware of anyplace that uses apostrophes for delimiters. :)
US project shut down (Score:5, Informative)
Thankfully a project by the same company just north of San Francisco has been shut down. The last thing CA needs is more earthquakes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/science/earth/12quake.html [nytimes.com]
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Like anyone in San Francisco would notice a 3.4. That's just a normal night in the Castro when the music is playing loudly.
We wouldn't even notice (Score:2)
Dude, out here we wouldn't even notice a 3.4 magnitude earthquake.
It could warrant a comment or two if someone else is in the room when it happens, and it *might* get 5 minute blurb on a slow news day.
Hell... (Score:3, Informative)
Hell, here's a map [usgs.gov] of the earthquakes that happened this week in California.
http://quake.usgs.gov/recenteqs/ [usgs.gov]
Profit! (Score:2)
1. Drill and Cause Earthquakes
2. ????
3. Profit!
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How did you find the entire screenplay for "Under Siege 2?!?"
In other news... (Score:2, Funny)
Seriously, if this guy changes his name to Dr. Quake or some other reasonable mad scientist name his only punishment should be a lecture from the super hero of his choice.
__________
On a more serious note, this is pretty scary. His excuse that the result was stronger than he expected is lame - when dealing with things of this magnitude you should try to be as certain as possible. Calling such a damaging incident
Intentionally? (Score:2)
Forgive my lack of knowledge of Swiss law but I'm going to assume proving he intentionally damaged property would require proving intent. I'm extraordinarily skeptical that there was any.
Re:Intentionally? (Score:4, Interesting)
What about progress? (Score:2)
I'm pretty skeptical about many of the miraculous so-called "green energy" projects that abound. But if you don't even try them, then how will you know whether or not they'll work? This seems like a message to innovators and inventors; yeah, we want your new technologies, but if you screw up, you go to jail.
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The "You can't do that, because science hurts my precious tender feelings!" crowd are idiots, and ought not to be listened to; but the notion that you can cavalierly take risks with other people's lives and property(Your own? knock yourself out.) because they are working for "progress" is pretty broken.
Hey, it's a good way to get rid of... (Score:5, Funny)
Earthquake a coincidence? (Score:2)
Is there any real evidence that the earthquake wasn't a coincidence and not due to the drilling? The article was rather thin.
can we go after natural gas companies, too? (Score:4, Insightful)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/energy-environment/08fracking.html
The drilling boom is raising concern in many parts of the country, and the reaction is creating political obstacles for the gas industry. Hazards like methane contamination of drinking water wells, long known in regions where gas production was common, are spreading to populous areas that have little history of coping with such risks, but happen to sit atop shale beds.
And a more worrisome possibility has come to light. A string of incidents in places like Wyoming and Pennsylvania in recent years has pointed to a possible link between hydraulic fracturing and pollution of groundwater supplies. In the worst case, such pollution could damage crucial supplies of water used for drinking and agriculture
It isn't going to be climate change that kills us. We won't have any clean water to drink. Fun fact: the "safe water drinking act" isn't being enforced by the EPA [nytimes.com], and even water that has very unhealthy level of arsenic is "safe". Does a 1-in-600 chance of getting bladder cancer sound "safe" to you?
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Actually, yeah it does.
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I just visited Mount Rushmore, and there are signs on the fountains stating that the EPA lowered the accepted arsenic level from 50ppm to 10ppm, but the water there actually has 12ppm. Are you 1/600 Rushmore tourists are going to get bladder cancer due to the 20% extra arsenic in the Coke?
Obviously not an expert, maybe ex pert? (Score:3, Interesting)
This has all happened before and apparently will happen again:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/lr247770l2272741/ [springerlink.com]
I recall these earthquakes were triggered by chemical weapon disposal, same plot though, dig a big deep hole and put liquid in.....
]
Is he a transformer? (Score:2)
Whattaya in for? (Score:2)
Since they mentioned criminal charges, I just imagined him being placed in a cell with other suspects...
Cellmate: "What are you in for?"
Haering: "Causing earthquakes."
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or --
Cellmate: "What are you in for?"
Haering: 'i made the earth move in thousands of houses'
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most earth scientists knew this since 1960s (Score:3, Interesting)
Teh question really is political. Was the possibility of I.S. included in the pre-project environmental study? Did they ignore signs of it starting? Was it really caused by their activities.
Where's the kaboom? (Score:2)
Well, at least they didn't try this in Yellowstone...
Lex Luther (Score:2)
I hear Lex Luther is hiring.
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Lex Luthor: "Everyone's got their faults. Mine's in California."
James Bond Villian (Score:2)
Switzerland: The Bond Villain of the European Union...
No wonder they have all of the Gold there.....
"Pay us one Beeellion dollars or your cities get shaken, not stirred..."
Jurisprudence (Score:2)
I'm eager to see how this trial's decisions will impact the trial against the LHC physicists team in a few months for causing rapid gravitational earth implosion. At 9M$ for a few km of earth, this could get quite expensive!
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I'm eager to see how this trial's decisions will impact the trial against the LHC physicists team in a few months for causing rapid gravitational earth implosion
The what? Don't you mean the LHC physicists team turning everyone on on Earth into a penguin?
How is it that everyone who thinks the LHC might create black holes fails to notice the equally plausible grand unification of general relativity and evolution that could result in such mass cross-species conversion due to reprogramming of our DNA?
Drying clothes and linen on rope in sun and wind (Score:4, Insightful)
All this to produce electricity to dry clothing in the electric dryers. Just let people dry clothing and linen on the ropes in the sun and wind.
Billions and billions of such drying wet items will cool the planet. Because it will be daily, and it will be in billions.
We are trying to solve by engineering means a problem which is not a technical problem. It is a problem in our heads.
In Iceland.... (Score:3, Informative)
Here in Iceland they have been pumping down Co2 for testing. That is down with water, but the result is the same, it has created earthquakes. The largest one was about ML2.0 before they stopped the experiment.
I don't know why it was stopped. But it is quite oblivious that pressure changes create earthquakes faster then one might think.
However, in Iceland they where pumping down that water within a active volcano with a lot of fault lines.
Tesla... (Score:2)
Eh, Tesla did it 100 years ago, if the stories and his autobiography are to be believed :)
Haering's company was actually ... (Score:3, Funny)
Should have used protection (Score:2)
He should have employed sheep's bladders.
impossible (Score:5, Interesting)
You can't "cause" an earthquake. They are caused by tectonic pressure. You may be able to adjust the timing of one, though.
Perhaps this man's 3.4 quake actually saved the village from having a 4.0 quake a few years later! Did anyone think of that? Perhaps they should be giving him a medal.
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You can't "cause" an earthquake. They are caused by tectonic pressure. You may be able to adjust the timing of one, though.
You are absolutely right. How about a bunch of small quakes rather than one large one. I live in Salt Lake City which geologists say lies on a large fault that is due for a large quake. I'd much rather have a planned quake, even if it was fairly large rather than a huge unexpected one. I guarantee that if that happens I'll know people who'll die. I just really hope that when it does happen it isn't anyone too close to me. Selfish I know, but aren't we all? I just wonder why nobody in that village see
He Did It Wrong (Score:2)
That's how we roll. =D
A Travesty (Score:3, Interesting)
It is a shame that this fellow is going to be on trial. He obviously had no intent to do harm. And this article does not indicate the he was irresponsible in his efforts. Sometimes bad things happen but that does not mean that someone should be punished.
Re:A Learning Experience - (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A Learning Experience - (Score:4, Funny)
I imagine he would be seen as an evil supervillain like Lex Luthor or something, and emerge from jail with a small army to do his geological bidding.
Re:A Learning Experience - (Score:4, Funny)
Drilling holes with deep penetration. With a ground shaking climax.
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Is your name Louis Michaud [newscientist.com]?