Shaky Ground: The Untold Story of the Greatest Earthquake Surge to Hit Modern America

FAIN: RZ-292491-23

Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3800)
Conevery Bolton Valencius (Project Director: November 2022 to present)

Research and writing of a co-authored book on the relationship between the rise of earthquakes and the oil and gas industry in the United States. (15 months)

Shaky Ground is a scientific detective story about researchers tracing recent mid-American earthquake activity to the production of fossil fuels. Innovative drilling techniques led by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have made the 21st-century United States a leading exporter of both oil and natural gas. Yet getting rid of the huge volumes of wastewater from hydrocarbon production has caused the earth to shake, in myriad small tremors and in M5.7 and 5.8 earthquakes in Oklahoma. This book chronicles how the waste from energy innovation led to the expansion of science, as seismologists had to make room for a significant role in human action in causing earthquakes. Far from a smooth process, discerning the cause of new American earthquakes led to raucous debate, public alarm, and official obfuscation. This is a history of science and science denial, told with keen detail and vivid storytelling and relevant to current fraught debates over responses to global climate change.