EarthQuakes and Oil

[Conspirasist]

This may sound silly since earthquakes have been happeing
for millions of years but i was wondering what you all think.

The question is, do you think that by removing all the oil from
earth, it would make earthquakes worse and worse every year?

I was thinking that since earth creates this crude oil, it is for
a reason. Maybe if it was left in the ground, oil would help
keep earthquakes down to a minimum or ease the effects of
an earthquake by allowing the plates of earth to slide by one
another without such disastrous effects.

[James Lewitzke]

Interesting hypothesis.

But I thought most of the oil and fossil fuels come from just that, fossils. I mean, if the Earth really "created" oil, then we would never run out, right?

I'm not a geologist, but pertaining to the question, I'm not sure just how deep the oil is "buried" within the Earth to make a difference in Earthquake magnitudes and the like.

[Conspirasist]

Originally Posted by James Lewitzke

But I thought most of the oil and fossil fuels come from just that, fossils. I mean, if the Earth really "created" oil, then we would never run out, right?

I was thinking shale oil as well. Is that fossil fuel? I don't know.

Originally Posted by James Lewitzke

I'm not a geologist, but pertaining to the question, I'm not sure just how deep the oil is "buried" within the Earth to make a difference in Earthquake magnitudes and the like.

That's what is didn't know either. Just how deep does an oil pocket go?

Now that i think about it though, i guess oil wouldn't have much to do
with the severity of an earthquake unless the oil pocket is always going
to be where the plates rub together. I don't think that's going to happen
since the plates keep moving around.

[hamesy]

I don't think it would make much of a difference tbh, as the oil pockets aren't underneath the plates but actually inside them. Let me explain with a little diagram:



Basically the oil pockets are inside the plates and not underneath them, ie between the plates and the outer core. So removing the oil shouldn't make a difference in terms of earthquakes.

If the oil was between the plates and the outer core, then it wouldn't be there as if would simply burn purely because of the hot temperatures.

How removing the oil could cause the Earth's crust to collapse because as they are removing the oil, it is replaced with air, meaning there isn't anything supporting it. Basically the same thing as when a mining shaft collapses. However I'm not sure in the process of removing the oil, so and the oil companies might actually replace the oil with a liquid to combat this.

[Conspirasist]

Good post hamesy. Thanks for the picture.

You just verified my final thought on this but i never even gave
it a thought about the oil pockets collapsing when the get emptied
out.

I wonder what would happen if one did collapse. Would we be left
with one big sink hole? If it was under a mountain, would the mountain
collapse?

[hamesy]

I'm not sure what will happen if one does collapse. However I think I saw something on the tv years ago about this problem and the oil companies were trying to come up with solutions. Can't remember what it was called...I might have even dreamt about it.

[Conspirasist]

Ill try to find something about it but i'm not sure what to look for.

[Conspirasist]

I've been looking around but i can't find anything about filling in
an oil well after it has been emptied out.

The closest i came to was that in the process of trying to get the
oil out of the ground, they usually use water or steam to create pressure
to push the crude oil out of the ground.

[CrazyPaul]

I'll throw out a different hypothesis for a connection between oil and earthquakes (this one based on snow-pack and geologic activity in the Himalayas).
By pulling oil out of the ground, you reduce the mass of the Earth's crust on top of the mantle for a given location.
This gives room for expansion, causing contraction in other areas; thus, movement.

Only thing is, there doesn't seem to be a strong correlation (location wise) between heavily drilled areas and earth quakes. It seems about as random as anything else. Japan has huge numbers of quakes yet no oil available for drilling. The middle-east has a number of quakes and lots of oil. In the US, quakes and oil in Cali, oil/no quakes in Texas.

Though possible, it's hard to pin down. Maybe it is just one of many contributing factors to earth quakes. Though historically, the number of quakes is decreasing over time....

[Conspirasist]

That's a great thought on this. Thanks for your input.