Comments on Hydraulic Fractures: How far can they go ? http://www.scribd.

com/doc/91601052/Natural-and-Stimulated-Fractures
This study compares the distances of artificially stimulated fractures via fracking of shale gas wells, and naturally occurring fractures. In that sense, the comparison and the authors conclusion is a bit misleading, since the greatest risk involved in fracking is the problem of the frack hitting a naturally occurring fault which communicates with an aquifer used for drinking water. The authors did not specifically look at this, but did discuss one incident that they labeled an unintentionally stimulated hydraulic fracture without stating whether or not the frack hit an existing naturally occurring fault. The authors did conclude that the probability of gas migration into groundwater was more likely to occur via casing leaks and leaks outside the casing in wellbores, a well-documented phenomena. http://www.scribd.com/doc/65577477/How-Gas-Wells-Leak The authors discuss examples of naturally occurring faults in various locations, up to 66% of which terminate at the surface. Suffice to say that if one of these faults was pressurized by a frack, the frack fluid could travel the length of the fault, to the surface - and into any intervening aquifer. 3. Results 3.1. Natural hydraulic fractures Offshore of Mauritania 368 vertical pipes were identied over an area of 1880 km2 (Davies and Clark, 2010 e Fig. 3ab) and it was possible to measure the vertical extent of 360 of these. They are hosted on a passive continental margin, probably within ne-grained turbidites and foram-nannofossil hemipelagites of Neogene age (Henrich et al., 2010). A graph of frequency against vertical extent hows the most common vertical extent is between w200 m and w300 m. The tallest conduit is w507 m (Fig. 4a). The average vertical extent is 247 m. Offshore of Namibia, we measured 366 vertical chimneys in a succession composed of ne-grained claystones of Miocene to Recent age (Moss and Cartwright, 2010). The average vertical extent is 360 m. The maximum vertical extent is w1106 m (Fig. 4a). Vertical chimneys also form offshore mid-Norway within the Oligocene to Recent ne-grained mudstone and siliceous mudstones of the Brygge, Kai and Naust Formations (Hustoft et al., 2010). 66% of these terminate at the seabed. Of the 446 pipes the average

vertical extent is 338 m. The maximum vertical extent isw882 m (Fig. 4a). Graphs of hydraulic fracture height against the probability of non-exceedance of this height for each dataset show the probability of pipes exceeding a range of vertical extents (Fig. 4b). Based upon these data the probability of a pipe extending vertically >350 m is w33% The authors cite only one example of a stimulated fracture that resulted in an accident in this case, a disposal well that communicated with the seabed. 3.3. Unintentionally stimulated hydraulic fractures At the Tordis Field, offshore Norway, waste water produced due to oil production was injected at w900 m below the surface. This caused hydraulic fractures to propagate approximately 900 m to the seabed. Pressure proles from the injection well show a stepped fracturing of the overburden (Lseth et al., 2011). The injection lasted for approximately 5.5 months, while the leakage to seaoor may have occurred for between 16 and 77 days (Lseth et al., 2011). As noted, the authors pointed out that leaking gas well bores are more likely vectors for gas contamination into aquifers. 4.3 Implications and further work: Other mechanisms for contamination such as the leakage of biogenic or thermogenic gas from porous and permeable strata behind well casing and natural migration of methane are more likely. 5. Conclusions Natural hydraulic fracture pipes have the potential to propagate upwards further than stimulated ones. Their conclusion begs the question of the risk of a frack pressurizing a natural fault, particularly ones that are poorly mapped, as is the case in central New York, and that would provide a vector into an aquifer. http://www.scribd.com/doc/81397215/Fracking-New-York-Faults