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Winter smog, religious festivals and election campaigns pose a crucial test of India’s pandemic management. The victims asked that the central government apologize and offer compensation, although it still has not formally admitted its responsibility for the incident.
What led to the big earthquake in Pohang, South Korea? How does enhanced geothermal technology work? (max. The close race indicates lasting shifts in American politics which will spill over to U.S. international engagements.
The first issue emerged from the fact that the disaster was not an “act of God.” According to the research team’s report, the massive earthquake occurred far away from the rock that was cracked by the geothermal facility; therefore, the earthquake was “triggered” rather than directly “induced” by the facility’s activities. From everything you’ve learned about what happened at Pohang, do you think enhanced geothermal development should slow down? In practice, authorities and drillers tend to focus more on preventing small earthquakes that can be felt rather than on avoiding the much less likely event of an earthquake strong enough to do serious harm. But they are rare and pretty much tapped out. Research now shows that development of a geothermal energy project shoulders the blame. If Yes, tell us by using the I FELT IT form behind the earthquake or at the bottom of this page. The fact that the earthquake was a man-made disaster is considerably important to the citizens because, contrary to natural events that are unpredictable and often recurring, a man-made disaster offers a sense of comfort as well as the notion that the situation is controllable and that further earthquakes can be prevented. Different from a traditional geothermal system, which uses underground heat released naturally from the earth to generate electricity, Pohang’s enhanced geothermal system cracked open impermeable rocks to create conduits and infuse water with high pressure to bring the underground heat to the surface. (Image credit: Shutterstock). We will not share your E-mail with anyone else, it will be used only for earthquake alerts.
South Korea has a long history of making vague or intentionally misleading statements on its environmental policies. Therefore, the citizens and the city government alike have been trying to disassociate Pohang from the negative earthquake image by highlighting that the event was technological rather than natural. Fear for the Future: “No More Environmental Experiments”.
Stanford epidemiologist Stephen Luby discusses surprising results of a recent study on Nipah virus, a disease with no vaccine and a mortality rate of up to 70 percent. About No matter how important and urgent renewable energy projects are in combating climate change, greater transparency and active communication with the local governments and citizens, who are victim to the potential risks, must be implemented. Depth and Magnitude updates in the list below.
Most significantly, the central government and the operating company did not sufficiently communicate with the local government and Pohang’s citizens. Bills have been offered for the National Assembly’s consideration, but debates regarding the law’s details are currently ongoing. How has the report that confirmed the correlation between the earthquake and the geothermal power project affected the victims and residents of Pohang?
To fine-tune your options, simply generate a new subscription. The facility’s complete removal is not reassuring, either; to ordinary citizens, it is unclear how the removal of geothermal pipes and structures can affect the underground situation. And it’s important to consider it through the lens of evolving risk rather than hazard.
There may be some truth to that in some places, but the experience in Pohang tells us it’s not the whole story.
If a fault ends up being activated and the chance of a damaging earthquake increases, civil authorities and project managers might say, “we’re done.”. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. Therefore, the central government must conduct a sufficient variety of studies and share the results with these citizens before deciding whether or not the facility will be removed for restoration. What lies ahead for the Korean Peninsula? To date, no new mission has taken place. In 2019, there were 65 earthquakes recorded in South Korea, decreasing from 98 in the previous year. “There is no doubt,” said Stanford geophysicist William Ellsworth.
The potential for a runaway or triggered earthquake always has to be considered. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Natural geothermal systems are an important source of clean energy from which we may achieve significant benefits if we safely develop the technology. On a November afternoon in 2017, a magnitude 5.5 earthquake shook Pohang, South Korea, injuring dozens and forcing more than 1,700 of the city’s residents into emergency housing.
In March 2019, a government-commissioned research team in South Korea concluded after a year-long study that the 5.4-magnitude earthquake that … Small earthquakes lingered for weeks after the operators turned the pumps off or backed off the pressure. If we can assign a probability to earthquakes of different magnitudes, then civil authorities can decide whether or not they want to accept the risk and under what terms. A government-led renewable energy project was scheduled to build South Korea’s first geothermal power plant in Pohang’s Heunghae township by 2018. The selection of a weak Magnitude, a 24 hour delivery on a worldwide list would result in an avalanche of emails (each earthquake will generate an E-mail).
Enjoying this article? The work was supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology. “Usually we don’t say that in science, but in this case, the evidence is overwhelming.” Ellsworth is among a group of scientists, including Kang-Kun Lee of Seoul National University, who published a perspective piece May 24 in Science outlining lessons from Pohang’s failure. Juheon Lee is a visiting assistant professor in the Government and Law Department at Lafayette College, the United States. Therefore, it is important to consider risk rather than hazard with regard to geothermal projects. Pressure from the fluid injections ended up providing the kick. Problems have also emerged from the citizens’ fear of the geothermal facility that still remains in their city. Their worries originate from a similar case in Basel, Switzerland in 2006. Amid COVID-19, the South Asian country needs its economic partnerships with France more than ever. Pohang has been suffering from reduced house prices, a decreased number of tourists, population outflow, and the shrinking of local businesses since the earthquake. As more than 59 deaths were reported soon after a shot, the South Korean government is asking people to trust its health officials that the vaccine is safe. The facility previously injected 13,000 tons of water at high pressure into the rock strata, which produced a network of fractures and activated a previously unknown underground fault.
Understanding what went wrong in Pohang could allow other regions to more safely develop this promising energy source. A section of bare rock is left open at the bottom of the well. Kim Jong Un’s year did not go as planned. An earthquake occurred at 11:04 AM yesterday morning, 11 kilometers north-northwest of Sangju, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province.
According to Pohang Mayor Lee Gang-deok, nearly 80 percent of Pohang citizens are complaining about mental damage, while 42 percent are still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. These cookies do not store any personal information. The Swiss government immediately stopped operating a power plant following a few microearthquakes, but small-scale earthquakes nevertheless continued for years after the facility’s shutdown. The best independent earthquake reporting site in the world, Have you felt the shaking?
If Yes, tell us by using the I FELT IT form behind the earthquake or at the bottom of this page. Many geothermal, oil and gas projects have also been guided by a hypothesis that as long as you don’t put more than a certain volume of fluid into a well, you won’t get earthquakes beyond a certain size. Immediately after the report was published, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, which owns the geothermal power generation project, asserted that it had accepted the results reached by the research team and would immediately stop the facility’s operations; however, doing so has not reassured the citizens of Pohang of their safety. His research focuses on environmental politics, disaster resilience, and social capital, and he has published multiple articles on the social impacts of natural hazards in the East Asian region. Pressure migrating into the fault zone reduced the forces that would normally make it difficult for the fault to move. Click here to subscribe for full access. The goal of an enhanced geothermal system is to create a network of fractures in hot rock that is otherwise too impermeable for water to flow through. In March 2019, a government-commissioned research team in South Korea concluded after a year-long study that the 5.4-magnitude earthquake that rattled the city of Pohang in November 2017 was triggered by geothermal power generation. The revelation that the 2017 quake was triggered by an energy project has had a complicated impact on the city. Chinese state media call the U.S. election chaotic and costly, while social media users can't stop talking about it.
After the research team’s report was published, the citizens of Pohang celebrated that the city could finally rid itself of the dishonorable nickname of “earthquake city.” In their eyes, Pohang had been proven a safe place in which to live, work, and invest.
If you can create that network of fractures, then you can use two wells to create a heat exchanger. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. The violent destruction of a Muslim holy site in India prompted religious studies scholar Anna Bigelow to ask why some communities succumb to violence and others do not. But water injected in the other well began to activate a previously unknown fault that crossed right through the well. The problem is when the earthquakes get too big. For example, in February 2019, a relatively small-scale underwater earthquake occurred 50 kilometers off the coast of Pohang. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Today's right-wing politics has a transnational element, resulting in eerily similar conspiracy theories about voter fraud in the U.S. and South Korea.
Your earthquake experience is not only important for science, but also for people in the area as well as our global readership. The public panic over flu vaccine safety highlights the potential problems facing a COVID-19 vaccine.