BrainStuff Classics: What Is Fracking?

You’ve heard of fracking, and you’re pretty sure lots of people don’t like it, but do you know what it really entails? Learn what goes into the fracking process in this classic episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Vocubam here with a classic episode from our ferstwhile host,
Christian Sager. In this one, we explain the physical process
of fracking. You've probably heard environmental experts and activists rail
against it, and you may have heard petroleum companies defended
as a modern solution for meeting the world's energy needs.

(00:25):
We don't get deep into the controversy, but here's how
it works. Hey, brain Stuff, this is Christian Sager fracking.
You've heard of it, you know it's controversial, but you
might not know what it actually involves. Never fear. Here
at brain Stuff, We're going to put some fracking knowledge

(00:47):
in your brain. Fracking is the delightfully cheeky sounding nickname
for hydraulic fracturing, which sounds a little bit less delightful
and less cheeky and more like something you would do
to your enemies and don't know StarCraft. But no, it
is something we do to rocks. In the simplest terms,
hydraulic fracturing is a way of getting more of the

(01:08):
valuable fluids like oil and natural gas out of geologic
formations under the ground, deep under Earth's surface. There are
deposits of rock that have huge reserves of oil and
natural gas within them. But these fossil fuels aren't like
big lakes where you can just stick a straw in
and suck it. Is not a milkshake. No, these reserves

(01:30):
of oil and natural gas are found locked up in
pores distributed throughout vast layers of rock like shale. So
how do you get them out at a reasonable pace? Okay,
different processes are used, but let's look at the typical
fracking setup for something like shale gas. You start with
a deep vertical well, drilling a hole down to the

(01:51):
level of the shale that you want to mind. The
depth will vary, but just for example, one company claims
it's average fracking well depth is seven thousand, seven hundred feet.
That's deep almost one and a half miles or about
two point three kilometers. When you're at the right depth,
you take a ninety degree turn and you continue to

(02:12):
drill horizontally parallel to the target rock layer. This horizontal
section of the well can also travel thousands of feet.
Now here's where the fracturing comes in. First, you open
up holes in the horizontal section of the pipe. Then
you vigorously push a liquid cocktail known as fracking fluid
down into the borehole under high pressure. This fracking fluid

(02:36):
is usually a mixture of water, some chemical additives like
acids to help dissolve the rock, and gels to thicken
the fluid, and finally solid particles called profits. And we're
going to get to those propitts in a second. When
the mixture reaches the horizontal section of the pipe, it
bleeds out through those holes into the surrounding rock, and

(02:57):
the extremely high pressure causes the rock to form tons
of little fractures or cracks. Through these cracks, the reserves
of fossil fuels contained in the rock can escape into
the well to be pumped back up to the surface.
What once was entombed in ancient rock is now the
way to powering your car or heating the water for

(03:19):
your next shower. And those propins I mentioned, which are
often just grains of sand, they help prop the cracks
in the rock open, so the Earth's precious bodily fluids
continue to escape into the well without the miners applying
continuous pressure. So that's how it works. But then there's
the entirely separate question of whether fracking is a good idea.

(03:43):
It's mega controversial in many parts of the world. Some
people claim it consumes too much fresh water, and they
worry about what will be done with the fracking fluid
after it's been used, and some opponents wonder if it
will create earthquakes or cause chemical contaminants to seek into
our groundwater. Today's episode was written by Joe McCormick and

(04:09):
forgive that StarCraft reference. He wrote this in twenties sixteen
and yes, I campaigned for a Battlestar Galactical reference instead,
and it was produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is
production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more on
this and lonts of other fracking great topics, visit our
home planet how Stuff Works dot com, and for more
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