Earthquake triggering and large-scale geologic storage of carbon dioxide
Mark D. Zobacka,1 and Steven M. Gorelickb
Departments of aGeophysics and Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
Edited by Pamela A. Matson, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved May 4, 2012 (received for review March 27, 2012)
Abstract
Despite its enormous cost, large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered a viable strategy for significantly reducing CO2 emissions associated with coal-based electrical power generation and other industrial sources of CO2 [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2005) IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. Prepared by Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eds Metz B, et al. (Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge, UK); Szulczewski ML, et al. (2012) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109:5185–5189]. We argue here that there is a high probability that earthquakes will be triggered by injection of large volumes of CO2 into the brittle rocks commonly found in continental interiors. Because even small- to moderate-sized earthquakes threaten the seal integrity of CO2 repositories, in this context, large-scale CCS is a risky, and likely unsuccessful, strategy for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/26/10164
LA Times coverage:
The notion of mitigating harmful carbon dioxide emissions by storing the gas underground is not practical because the process is likely to cause earthquakes that would release the gas anyway, according to a commentary published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While the scientists do not expect that the approach would cause any large and dangerous seismic activity, they say it is likely that the earthquakes would be severe enough to jeopardize the ability to store the gas underground over the long term.
Some scientists and government officials have proposed dealing with human-generated carbon emissions with a process called “carbon capture and storage,” or CCS, in which the gas is separated from the emissions of a coal-burning power plant, captured, and then injected underground at high pressure.
The problem is that...
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-carbon-storage-may-cause-earthquakes-20120618,0,5073255.story
= new reply since forum marked as read
Can't point out this bit too many times:
>> The notion of mitigating harmful carbon dioxide emissions by storing the
>> gas underground is not practical because the process is likely to cause
>> earthquakes that would release the gas anyway
Thanks for posting this.
(Mind you, I still think that the NRC sold out when they declared that
fracking for natural gas is somehow "different" ...)
i.e., doing the same thing (forcing liquids into strata) will & does lead to earthquakes
regardless of what the liquid is or the purpose behind it.
Unfortunately, that is merely factual physical evidence and, as such, is easily
over-ruled by sufficient money paid by the interested parties to the people who
should be treating fracking as the same as "CCS" or military waste disposal.
(Extraction is subtly different but can be linked to similar symptoms when
enhanced recovery methods are applied with insufficient care - again, for
the sake of short-term profit over longer term problems for "someone else"
.
If you want to clean up coal, gasify it. By gasifying you make about 1/2 as much co2 to get the equivalent amount of energy from it as you do burning the coal as it is burned in most plants today
And don't fucking tell me I don't know what I'm talking about either 
