Fracking ‘plausible’ set off for swarm of earthquakes close to Gatwick | EUROtoday

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A swarm of earthquakes that shook homes in Surrey could have been brought on by drilling operations within the space, a examine has steered.

Around 1,600 individuals reported the seismic exercise, with some struggling cracked partitions and others being shaken of their beds as tremors within the village of Newdigate, close to Gatwick Airport, reached a peak magnitude of three.18 in 2019.

Suspicions had been quickly aroused when it was found the epicentre of the tremors was close to UK Oil & Gas’s drilling operaton at Horse Hil oil subject – however analysis by the British Geological Survey discovered no hyperlink with the oil and fuel works.

However, for years, environmentalists have blamed the close by oil extraction for the quakes, and now a brand new report commissioned by University College London (UCL) seems to have strengthened their argument.

Matthew Fox and Philip Meredith ran laptop simulations based mostly on the placement and magnitude of oil extraction suggesting that the earthquakes had been induced by oil extraction.

“Our findings indicate it is plausible that oil extraction triggered the earthquakes,” mentioned Dr Matthew Fox, lead creator of the examine.

Using the Bayesian mathematical mannequin, the researchers predicted the variety of earthquakes which may happen based mostly on how a lot oil had been extracted, accounting for the 2 totally different rock sorts that oil was extracted from.

They additionally discovered that there had not been an earthquake in Surrey for many years, suggesting the hyperlink between fracking and the tremors.

Dr Fox added: “We cannot rule out that this link is a coincidence. More work needs to be done to understand if this is cause and effect.”

Members of the general public mentioned close by buildings might be heard to creak and reported feeling a “large impact then two or three seconds of shaking” through the swarm of earthquakes that occurred in 2018 and 2019.

Tremors had been felt in Newdigate, Dorking, Horley and Charlwood in Surrey, and in addition Crawley and Horsham in West Sussex.

UK Oil & Gas managed oil extraction at Horse Hill till October 2024,when planning permission from Surrey County Council was withdrawn following a courtroom case introduced by campaigners.

A spokesperson for the corporate advised New Scientist: “This is an incident that was answered and dealt with many years ago when the British Geological Survey seismologists were satisfied it was a natural event associated with movement on a deeper unassociated fault many kilometres deeper and distant from the site.”

The Independent has contacted UK Oil & Gas for remark.