1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,000 Speaker 1: Hi. I am Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. 2 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:05,360 Speaker 1: We are the co hosts of the Stuff You Missed 3 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,240 Speaker 1: in History Class podcast from how Stuff Works dot com. 4 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,240 Speaker 1: And as you might suspect from the name, what we 5 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:12,400 Speaker 1: like to talk about are the things that are of 6 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: historical significance but maybe you didn't hear about in your 7 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:19,400 Speaker 1: standard history class. So sometimes they are famous figures and 8 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:21,800 Speaker 1: we're talking about the lesser known parts of their lives. 9 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:24,800 Speaker 1: Sometimes they are people in groups and places that are 10 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:28,800 Speaker 1: often overlooked in history class. Lots of cool stuff, So 11 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:34,199 Speaker 1: come and join us. Welcome to brain Stuff from how 12 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:42,440 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff, this is Christian Seger fracking. 13 00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:45,879 Speaker 1: You've heard of it, you know it's controversial, but you 14 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: might not know what it actually involves. Never fear. Here 15 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 1: at brain Stuff, we're going to put some fracking knowledge 16 00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: in your brain. Fracking is the delightfully cheeky sounding nickname 17 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:02,000 Speaker 1: for hydraulic fracturing, which sounds a little bit less delightful 18 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: and less cheeky and more like something you would do 19 00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:07,760 Speaker 1: to your enemies. And I don't know StarCraft, but no, 20 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:11,759 Speaker 1: it is something we do to rocks in the simplest terms. 21 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,520 Speaker 1: Hydraulic fracturing is a way of getting more of the 22 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,600 Speaker 1: valuable fluids like oil and natural gas out of geologic 23 00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:22,920 Speaker 1: formations under the ground. Deep under Earth's surface, there are 24 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:26,080 Speaker 1: deposits of rock that have huge reserves of oil and 25 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:29,680 Speaker 1: natural gas within them. But these fossil fuels aren't like 26 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: big lakes where you can just stick a straw in 27 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:36,880 Speaker 1: and suck it. Is not a milkshake. No, these reserves 28 00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:39,679 Speaker 1: of oil and natural gas are found locked up in 29 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:43,679 Speaker 1: pores distributed throughout vast layers of rock like shale. So 30 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:47,280 Speaker 1: how do you get them out at a reasonable pace? Okay, 31 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 1: different processes are used, but let's look at the typical 32 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:54,440 Speaker 1: fracking set up for something like shale gas. You start 33 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:57,680 Speaker 1: with a deep vertical well, drilling a hole down to 34 00:01:57,720 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: the level of the shale that you want to mind. 35 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: The depth will vary, but just for example, one company 36 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: claims it's average fracking well depth is seven thousand, seven 37 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:11,520 Speaker 1: hundred feet. That's deep almost one and a half miles 38 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 1: or about two point three kilometers. When you're at the 39 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: right depth, you take a nine degree turn and you 40 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:21,680 Speaker 1: continue to drill horizontally parallel to the target rock layer. 41 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: This horizontal section of the well can also travel thousands 42 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: of feet. Now here's where the fracturing comes in. First, 43 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 1: you open up holes in the horizontal section of the pipe. 44 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 1: Then you vigorously push a liquid cocktail known as fracking 45 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:42,079 Speaker 1: fluid down into the borehole under high pressure. This fracking 46 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:45,920 Speaker 1: fluid is usually a mixture of water, some chemical additives 47 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,720 Speaker 1: like acids to help dissolve the rock, and gels to 48 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:53,880 Speaker 1: thicken the fluid, and finally solid particles called profits. And 49 00:02:53,919 --> 00:02:56,200 Speaker 1: we're going to get to those profitts in a second. 50 00:02:56,840 --> 00:02:59,680 Speaker 1: When the mixture reaches the horizontal section of the pipe, 51 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:03,560 Speaker 1: it bleeds out through those holes into the surrounding rock, 52 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:07,120 Speaker 1: and the extremely high pressure causes the rock to form 53 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:11,640 Speaker 1: tons of little fractures or cracks. Through these cracks, the 54 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: reserves of fossil fuels contained in the rock can escape 55 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:19,200 Speaker 1: into the well to be pumped back up to the surface. 56 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:22,400 Speaker 1: What once was entombed in ancient rock is now the 57 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: way to powering your car or heating the water for 58 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 1: your next shower. And those propins I mentioned, which are 59 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 1: often just grains of sand, they help prop the cracks 60 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: in the rock open, so the Earth's precious bodily fluids 61 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 1: continue to escape into the well without the miners applying 62 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: continuous pressure, So that's how it works. But then there's 63 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:48,920 Speaker 1: the entirely separate question of whether fracking is a good idea. 64 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:52,760 Speaker 1: It's mega controversial in many parts of the world. Some 65 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: people claim it consumes too much fresh water, and they 66 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:57,840 Speaker 1: worry about what will be done with the fracking fluid 67 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:01,640 Speaker 1: after it's been used, and some opponents wonder if it 68 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: will create earthquakes or cause chemical contaminants to leak into 69 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: our groundwater. Check out the brain stuff channel on YouTube, 70 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: and for more on this and thousands of other topics, 71 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 1: visit how stuff works dot com.