Fracking

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Grammarist

Fracking is a shortened version of the word fracturing, but more specifically hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is a process which uses high-pressured liquid to force gas or oil out of the earth. It is a noun, however, can also be a progressive form of the verb frack, which also makes fracks and fracked.

Some dictionaries also list fracking as an informal way to express annoyance or surprise (i.e., a substitute curse word), similar to flipping or fricking. However, while this may be gaining ground verbally, we were not able to find any print references where the term was in no way related to the mining process.

Examples

Shale oil and gas drilling employing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, produces millions of gallons of chemical-laced wastewater. [ABC News]

Anti-fracking campaigners apparently super-glued themselves to the doors of a government building as part of orchestrated protests around the UK. [BBC]

In a motion passed unanimously on Wednesday night, Shire of Coorow councillors voted that all fracking activity in the area be suspended pending a public inquiry. [The West Australian]

What needs to happen then is simple; states where drillers are allowed to frack need to have good regs and vigilant oversight. [Forbes]

Under the law, an oil company that fracks a well in California must tell state regulators within 60 days the amount of water used and the chemicals involved. [SF Gate]

Around a fifth of onshore wells are now fracked with extra sand, but the method could be used in around 80pc of all new shale wells, according to research by RBC Capital Markets. [The Telegraph]

Several years ago, a Los Alamos farmer discovered that Venoco, an oil company that leased his land, was fracking at one of their wells. [Lompoc Record

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