A research team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and McGill University in Montreal is investigating what exactly happens underground when the earth in western Canada shakes as a result of hydraulic fracturing activities. The team, headed by Bochum-based Professor Rebecca Harrington, wants to fundamentally understand how earthquakes occur—whether human induced or natural. “The hydraulic fracturing process is something like a scaled-up laboratory experiment for us,” explains Harrington, who heads the Hydrogeomechanics Group at RUB. “We see what happens when the subsurface is exposed to controlled stress conditions—under natural conditions changes in stress would be much more difficult to study.” RUB’s science magazine Rubin reports on the findings.
Click here for original story, What happens underground during hydraulic fracturing
Source: Phys.org