Relative magnitude of seismic events at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road shale gas site near Blackpool. Chart: Refracktion.com
This post tracks the series of earth tremors linked to fracking at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road shale gas site in Lancashire.
A red event, measuring 0.9ML was recorded at 13.41 on 14 December. It followed 7 smaller tremors which had all occurred in the previous 45 minutes.
The largest tremor to date measured 1.5ML, recorded at 11.21 on 11 December. It followed as series of much smaller events measuring 0.1 to -0.4ML earlier that morning. Cuadrilla confirmed the day before that it had resumed fracking after a break, probably dating back to 2 November 2018.
Before the 10 December event, the most recent was a 0.7ML tremor, recorded at 16.24 on 4 November 2018, about 48 hours after fracking.
We update this post regularly to show events that triggered the red and amber levels of the traffic light system regulations.
We’ll show how the location of the events has changed. There are also links to more detailed DrillOrDrop reports about the tremors.
This post uses data from the British Geological Survey online list of earthquakes around the British Isles in the last 100 days. It also uses information from Environment Agency reports of operations at Preston New Road.
Last updated: 4 July 2019 with information released by OGA (link)
Key facts
Total events
56
Days of tremors
17
Number of times Cuadrilla says it has paused fracking
5
Red events
Red events are seismic activity above 0.5ML when fracking is taking place
- 11.36 (GMT), 26/10/2018: 0.8ML (measured at 0.76 by Cuadrilla)
- 11.30 (GMT) 29/10/2018: 1.1ML
- 13.41 (GMT) 14/12/2018 0.9ML
Trailing events above 0.5ML
Trailing events are seismic activity above 0.5ML when fracking is not taking place
- 10.55 (GMT), 27/10/2018: 0.8ML
- 16.24 (GMT), 4/11/2018: 0.7ML
- 11.21 (GMT), 11/12/2018: 1.5ML
Events measured at 0.5ML by the British Geological Survey at 13.02 (GMT) on 24/10/2018 and 18.01 on 29/10/2018 were not counted by Cuadrilla as a trailing event because the company measured them at 0.48ML.
Amber events
Amber events are seismic activity from 0.0-0.5ML when fracking is taking place
- 14.45 (GMT), 23/10/2018: 0.4ML
Locations
There are larger versions of these maps in the Excel workbook linked below.
Recorded tremors at Preston New Road from 10/12 up to 14:52 on 14/12
Data:BGS, Background photo: Google Earth; Graphic: DrillOrDrop
Recorded tremors at Preston New Road up to 16:24 4/11/2018
Data:BGS, Background photo: Google Earth; Graphic: DrillOrDrop
Location of seismic events. Chart by Professor Roy Thompson FRSE, Professor Emeritus and Honorary Professorial Fellow Univ. Edinburgh.
Details
1Spreadsheet of earth tremors near Preston New Road up to 14.51 on 14 December 2018 (Excel 4MB download)
18 December 2018
Cuadrilla announces it is moving some equipment off Preston New Road. Details
17 December 2018
No tremors recorded by BGS
16 December 2018
No tremors recorded by BGS
15 December 2018
No tremors recorded by BGS
14 December 2018
0.1 at 2.51pm
0.9 at 1.41pm (Red event during pumping)
-0.5 at 1.36pm
-0.3 at 1.35pm
-0.1 at 1.18pm
0.1 at 1.09pm
-0.5 at 1.07pm
-0.2 at 1.06pm
-0.6 at 1.06pm
13 December 2018
0.0 at 13.25
12 December 2018
No BGS recorded seismic events
11 December 2018
1.5 at 11.21am (trailing event after pumping)
0.0 at 10.34am
-0.5 at 10.24am
0.0 at 10.18am (amber event during pumping)
-0.1 at 10.06am
0.1 at 9.53am (amber event during pumping)
-0.4 at 9.51am
-0.2 at 9.34am
-0.1 at 9.35am
- Cuadrilla said it had stopped fracking when the 1.5ML earth tremor was recorded. It said it would pause fracking for 18 hours.
10 December 2018
-0.3 at 10.30am. Link to DrillOrDrop post
5 November – 9 December 2018
No BGS recorded seismic events
- EA reported on 21 November 2018 that daily morning reports have been received despite no hydraulic fracturing activities.
4 November 2018
0.7ML (trailing event occurred after pumping) at 16.24, nearest seismicity to the shale gas site
3 November 2018
No BGS recorded seismic events
2 November 2018
-0.5ML at 22.59
-0.5ML at 17.44
- Mini frack on stage 38 with 14.3m3 and stage 35 with 14.25m3 without proppant. Flowed back stages 30 and 31 with 8.61m3 stored for reuse. Source
1 November 2018
-0.3ML at 06.50
- No operations. Source
31 October 2018
No BGS recorded seismic events
- Mini frack on stage 37 with 13.3m3 and stage 40 with 13.3m3 without proppant. Flowed back stages 31 and 32 with 12.1m3 for reuse. Source
30 October 2018
-0.3ML at 01.37;
-0.5ML at 14.36;
-0.4 at 15.55
- Mini frack on stage 41 using 15.7m3 and stage 39 using 15.3m3 without proppant. Source
29 October 2018
1.1ML at 11.30 (red event during pumping)
-0.2ML at11.44;
-0.4ML at 11.43;
0.0 at 11.58;
0.5ML at 18.01;
0.1ML at 21.13
- Cuadrilla confirms that it paused fracking for 18 hours Link to DrillOrDrop post
- Main frack of stage 32 of 119.1m3 with proppant. Flowback of 8.45m3 stored for reuse. Source
28 October 2018
- No BGS recorded seismic events
- No fracking activity. Source
27 October 2018
-0.3, 0.8 trailing event (fracking not taking place), -0.2, 0.0, -0.4
- Diagnostic injection test and main frack of stage 31 of 111.7m3 with proppant. Flowback of 9.18m3 stored for reuse. Source
26 October 2018
–0.2, 0.2, 0.8 red event (fracking taking place), -0.1
- Cuadrilla confirms that it paused fracking for 18 hours Link to DrillOrDrop post
- Diagnostic injection test and main frack of stage 30 with 142.2m3 containing propappant. Source
25 October 2018
0.3 amber event (fracking taking place), -0.1, -0.6 Link to DrillOrDrop post
- Injection of stage 22 with 350.9m3 with proppant. Flowback of 20.62m3 stored for reuse. Source
24 October 2018
0.5 (measured at 0.48 by Cuadrilla, fracking not taking place), 0.4, -0.1, 0.1, 0.0,
Link to DrillOrDrop post
- Mini frack of stage 18 with 10.5m3 without proppant. Flowback of 0.19m3 stored for reuse. Source
23 October 2018
0.4 amber event (fracking taking place)
Cuadrilla confirms that it paused fracking for the day Link to DrillOrDrop post
- Main frack of 128.9m3 with proppant. 17.93m3 of flowback stored for reuse. Source
22 October 2018
No BGS recorded seismic events
- Main frack of stage 13 of 384.8m3 with proppant. Flow back of 33.32m3 stored for reuse.
21 October 2018
No BGS recorded seismic events
- No fracking operations. Link to source information
20 October 2018
0.0
- Main frack of stage 12 used 2221.6m3 with proppant. Flow back volume of 22.49m3 stored for reuse. Link to source information
19 October 2018
0.3
- Frack of stage 12 using 33.9m3 without proppant. Difficulty injecting into formation. Link to source information
18 October 2018
-0.2, -0.8, -0.3 Link to DrillOrDrop post
- Main frack using 393.8m3 of fluid with proppant. 97.03m of flow back produced and stored for reuse. Link to source information
17 October 2018
No BGS recorded seismic events
- 15:20-15:25 Mini frac using 21.4m3 of fracturing fluid without proppant Link to source information
- 16:05-17:40 Main frack using 296.7m3 of slickwater with proppant. Flow back volume of 24.9m3 stored for reuse. Microseismic events plotted from the mini and main frac stage showed events plotting below the lateral section of the well to a depth of 96.8m and laterally to a length of 191.5m. No induced seismicity noted and no breach of sub-surface permit boundary. Link to source information Link to source information
16 October 2018
No BGS recorded seismic events
- 11:48-11:56Mini frac of stage 1 of 12.8m3 fresh water without additives or proppant. Link to source information
- 14:25-15:04 Main frack of 149.9m3 containing slickwater without proppant.Link to source information
15 October 2018
Fracking starts Link to DrillOrDrop post
- 13:00Mini-frac at Stage 1 of PNR1z well. Lasted for five minutes. No proppant was used during this mini-frack. 1.87m3 was pumped into the formation. Purpose was to measure the pressure in the shale formation when injected with hydraulic fracturing fluid. A further 15m3 mini-frac was not conducted. No microseismic events detected beyond the permit boundary. Link to source information
DrillOrDrop background articles
Cuadrilla accepted tough controls on fracking earth tremors six years ago 30/10/2018
The shadow of Preese Hall over UK fracking regulations 28/10/2018
What does a red light mean for fracking? 25/10/2018
Categories: Regulation
DRILL OR DROP? 
Yes I agree Linda, constant great coverage from DOD about this toxic industry.
Some interesting and informative comments too, it is just a shame we have to sift through some of the rubbish by certain contributors [edited by moderator]
Not to worry Hugo, they will be moderated.
Boy that tremor tracker sure doesn’t look as menacing now as it did a couple weeks ago.. Wouldn’t suit the DoD agenda to highlight that though, huh?
Perhaps Cuadrilla have discovered the versatility of WD40?
Seem to have exercised(a 1.5) the same fault on 11th Dec with the ‘improved’ fluid formula as that fault found on the 29th Oct (a 1.1). Clearly a slicker operation now. Greasing the faults good and proper!