Analysis of Marcellus Flowback Finds High Levels of Ancient Brines (w/ extra radium goodness!)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121218203537.htm
Analysis of Marcellus Flowback Finds High Levels of Ancient Brines
Dec. 18, 2012 — Brine water that flows back from gas wells in the Marcellus Shale region after hydraulic fracturing is many times more salty than seawater, with high contents of various elements, including radium and barium. The chemistry is consistent with brines formed during the Paleozoic era, a study by an undergraduate student and two professors in Penn State's Department of Geosciences found....
...The paper looked at fluids that flowed back within 90 days of fracking. The samples analyzed in the study come from wells in Pennsylvania, along with two from northern Virginia.
The analysis shows that the brine flowback had extremely high salinity that does not match the chemical composition of the solution put into the wells during the fracking process. Instead, the elements being released are similar to those deposited during the Paleozoic era, hundreds of millions of years ago.
Rose said the naturally occurring radioactive materials being brought to the surface after having been 8,000 feet deep were deposited with formations in that era. He noted that while much attention has been focused on the chemicals that are injected into the shale formation during the fracking process, also of concern is the release of elements such as barium and radium that have been in the ground for millions of years...
Lara O. Haluszczak, Arthur W. Rose, Lee R. Kump.
Geochemical evaluation of flowback brine from Marcellus gas wells in Pennsylvania, USA. Applied Geochemistry, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2012.10.002
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