Earthquakes
If you think I am obsessed with earthquakes, you are right. I think the ground under me should stay still. We already have enough trouble with the weather, let’s not have the earth move as well. I am sure most people agree with me, especially those who live in earthquake prone areas. The bulk of the population live in earthquake country because tectonic plate boundaries tend to be on sea coasts where most people live.
I don’t live in quake country. Denver is fairly stable since the Rocky Mountains stopped rising. There are lots of faults around and faults mean one area moves relative to another. The mountains are lighter as they wear away and tend to pop up a little out of the thick, semi molten stuff down there. So, motion and stress on the faults, therefore shaking. It doesn’t happen very often.
When the Army started pumping toxic chemicals into the ground under Rocky Mountain Arsenal, the liquid lubricated some old faults and vertical cracks in the ancient rock at the bottom of the 12,000 foot well and what stress there was let go. Denver experienced around 700 earthquakes, most of them minor but disturbing to the population near the Arsenal. There were two quakes above magnitude five resulting in minor structural damage and broken glass near the Arsenal.
As you might expect, voices were raised. Injection wells were used in other places with no surface consequences, so the shaking at the Arsenal came as a surprise. There was a clear correlation between waste injection and quakes, so injection stopped. The stuff injected was pretty nasty, and other means were used to dispose of what was left after the Well was shut down.
I am not sure pumping toxic stuff into the earth is a good idea anywhere, even if it is thousands of feet down. Toxic water can be treated, but the toxins don’t go away. They have to go somewhere. Sometimes they can be incinerated, sometimes buried, but they are still around. We are doing a good job at fouling our nest, the only one we have.
Some evangelicals don’t think there is any problem because the planet’s days are numbered and we were given dominion over the land until then. But, what if what they say are prophesies are wrong? These beliefs underpin some of the dismantling of environmental safeguards going on these days. I suspect the real reason is not theology, but greed.