Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vocubam here with a classic episode from our ferstwhile host,
Speaker 1: Christian Sager. In this one, we explain the physical process
Speaker 1: of fracking. You've probably heard environmental experts and activists rail
Speaker 1: against it, and you may have heard petroleum companies defended
Speaker 1: as a modern solution for meeting the world's energy needs.
Speaker 1: We don't get deep into the controversy, but here's how
Speaker 1: it works. Hey, brain Stuff, this is Christian Sager fracking.
Speaker 1: You've heard of it, you know it's controversial, but you
Speaker 1: might not know what it actually involves. Never fear. Here
Speaker 1: at brain Stuff, We're going to put some fracking knowledge
Speaker 1: in your brain. Fracking is the delightfully cheeky sounding nickname
Speaker 1: for hydraulic fracturing, which sounds a little bit less delightful
Speaker 1: and less cheeky and more like something you would do
Speaker 1: to your enemies and don't know StarCraft. But no, it
Speaker 1: is something we do to rocks. In the simplest terms,
Speaker 1: hydraulic fracturing is a way of getting more of the
Speaker 1: valuable fluids like oil and natural gas out of geologic
Speaker 1: formations under the ground, deep under Earth's surface. There are
Speaker 1: deposits of rock that have huge reserves of oil and
Speaker 1: natural gas within them. But these fossil fuels aren't like
Speaker 1: big lakes where you can just stick a straw in
Speaker 1: and suck it. Is not a milkshake. No, these reserves
Speaker 1: of oil and natural gas are found locked up in
Speaker 1: pores distributed throughout vast layers of rock like shale. So
Speaker 1: how do you get them out at a reasonable pace? Okay,
Speaker 1: different processes are used, but let's look at the typical
Speaker 1: fracking setup for something like shale gas. You start with
Speaker 1: a deep vertical well, drilling a hole down to the
Speaker 1: level of the shale that you want to mind. The
Speaker 1: depth will vary, but just for example, one company claims
Speaker 1: it's average fracking well depth is seven thousand, seven hundred feet.
Speaker 1: That's deep almost one and a half miles or about
Speaker 1: two point three kilometers. When you're at the right depth,
Speaker 1: you take a ninety degree turn and you continue to
Speaker 1: drill horizontally parallel to the target rock layer. This horizontal
Speaker 1: section of the well can also travel thousands of feet.
Speaker 1: Now here's where the fracturing comes in. First, you open
Speaker 1: up holes in the horizontal section of the pipe. Then
Speaker 1: you vigorously push a liquid cocktail known as fracking fluid
Speaker 1: down into the borehole under high pressure. This fracking fluid
Speaker 1: is usually a mixture of water, some chemical additives like
Speaker 1: acids to help dissolve the rock, and gels to thicken
Speaker 1: the fluid, and finally solid particles called profits. And we're
Speaker 1: going to get to those propitts in a second. When
Speaker 1: the mixture reaches the horizontal section of the pipe, it
Speaker 1: bleeds out through those holes into the surrounding rock, and
Speaker 1: the extremely high pressure causes the rock to form tons
Speaker 1: of little fractures or cracks. Through these cracks, the reserves
Speaker 1: of fossil fuels contained in the rock can escape into
Speaker 1: the well to be pumped back up to the surface.
Speaker 1: What once was entombed in ancient rock is now the
Speaker 1: way to powering your car or heating the water for
Speaker 1: your next shower. And those propins I mentioned, which are
Speaker 1: often just grains of sand, they help prop the cracks
Speaker 1: in the rock open, so the Earth's precious bodily fluids
Speaker 1: continue to escape into the well without the miners applying
Speaker 1: continuous pressure. So that's how it works. But then there's
Speaker 1: the entirely separate question of whether fracking is a good idea.
Speaker 1: It's mega controversial in many parts of the world. Some
Speaker 1: people claim it consumes too much fresh water, and they
Speaker 1: worry about what will be done with the fracking fluid
Speaker 1: after it's been used, and some opponents wonder if it
Speaker 1: will create earthquakes or cause chemical contaminants to seek into
Speaker 1: our groundwater. Today's episode was written by Joe McCormick and
Speaker 1: forgive that StarCraft reference. He wrote this in twenties sixteen
Speaker 1: and yes, I campaigned for a Battlestar Galactical reference instead,
Speaker 1: and it was produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more on
Speaker 1: this and lonts of other fracking great topics, visit our
Speaker 1: home planet how Stuff Works dot com, and for more
Speaker 1: podcast my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.