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Geothermal will trigger small earthquakes
Dr Kevin McCue - Australian Seismological Centre
21 February 2007
Geothermal steam.  Source: Dreamstime
Dr Kevin McCue is director of the Australian Seismological Centre, Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and adjunct professor at Central Queensland University (CQU). Below, Kevin responds to an article appearing on The Age website which discusses the connection between geothermal power and earthquakes.

A story by Bojan Pancevski in Vienna titled “Basal quake triggers crime probe” appeared on The Age website dated February 19, 2007 which said:

Swiss prosecutors are investigating a green energy project after it was revealed that it caused earthquakes. Prosecutors acted after experts confirmed that the Deep Heat Mining project to exploit geothermal energy near the north-west border city of Basel had caused tremors measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale’ etc etc.

The story finished with: 'Similar projects have been tested in Australia, Japan and the United States, without causing a similar reaction.'

This is not correct.

The hot dry rock project being run by Geodynamics near Innaminka in northeast South Australia produced thousands of 'earthquakes', the largest up to magnitude 3.5 several of which were felt in Innaminka but too far away to cause damage.

The process of fluid injection is designed to fracture the rock to produce pathways through which the water flows and is heated in the process. When brittle rocks fracture they release energy in the form of small earthquakes - that is normal. They will become less frequent with time as the path is established.

No previous earthquakes were known to have occurred near Innaminka SA but the written record does not extend back as far as 1356.

Footnote: Kevin McCue was employed by Geodynamics for a short period to help monitor earthquakes at their site near Innaminka.

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