How Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking) Works

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is a process by which natural gas or oil deposits are
released from underground by drilling into the earth and blasting high-pressure water
underground. The water that is blasted into the ground is combined with sand and various
chemicals to help release the gas or oil and allow it to rise to the surface of the well. Fracking is
commonly practiced on shale, a type of rock made of tightly packed clay or mud, due to its
ability to break easily and the large amounts of gas and oil that it contains.
Setting up the Process
Initially, after an oil shale deposit is found
through a geological method (using
computers to map underground, testing
rocks on the surface, etc.), a well is then
dug into the shale deposit, as seen in
Figure 1. Drilling the well can be done
vertically straight down into the rocks,
although it is more common to drill down
for a bit and then sideways into the rock.
Either way, a shaft is opened near the
fissures containing the oil and gas in the
shale rock. The shale rock sits below the
water table and among other layers of
rock.
Figure 1. A diagram of hydraulic fracturing, the well is placed
Fracturing the Rock over the drill site so that water can be pumped into the shale.

Once the shaft is completed, the well shoots the water-sand-chemical mixture into the shaft at a
high pressure, causing it shoot downwards and blast into the fissures. This process breaks open
the fissures wider, allowing the oil and natural gas to spew out. These deposits, lighter than the
water, then flow upwards and out of the well.
Benefits of Fracking
Some of the benefits of fracking include the
ability to collect hard-to-reach deposits of oil
and gas that could not be reached manually,
the lowering of gas prices in the U.S. due to
high oil production, cheaper heating prices
due to the abundance of natural gas, and lower
CO2 emissions due to the replaceability of
coal with oil and gas among other things.
Drawbacks to Fracking
While there are benefits to fracking, there are Figure 2. A fire ignites on a river filled with natural gas
also drawbacks to it as well. Fracking is a very from a fracking job.
noisy process, and can generate a lot of pollution, particularly to the water. An example of this is
in Figure 2, which shows a river that ignited as a result of natural gas leaking out of the ground
during a fracking job, contaminating the water and allowing it to catch on fire. Fracking can also
lead to minor seismic activity, with minor earthquakes being registered at fracking sites due to
the fracturing of the shale rocks that upper layers rest on, causing them to slide.