"Wisconsin sand, prized by frackers for its grains’ ideal size, shape and durability, is shipped to drilling sites including Texas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Canada...."
“This resurrection of the sand boom is important because it’s happening at a time when some communities are suffering because agricultural prices are low,” [said industry consultant Kent Syverson, chairman of UW-Eau Claire’s geology department]....
While the northern white sand found in the Midwest remains the highest quality and generates the highest yields for fracking, it costs $60 to $70 per ton to ship it to Texas, and more companies are exploring the possibility of using [lower-quality] Texas sand instead to save on transportation costs....
The article — "Sand industry back in business in western Wisconsin" — doesn't explain why this great sand is in Wisconsin. Ah,
here, from the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences Arts & Letters:
Frac sand is defined by its purity, shape, and toughness. It is more than 99% quartz, the grains are highly spherical, and it is extremely hard to crush....
Quartz is comprised of silicon and oxygen. A silicon atom in quartz has four positive charges, and to each of those is bonded a negatively charged oxygen atom. It balances nicely, four negatives bonded to four positives. Many minerals contain silicon bonded to oxygen, but the special attribute of quartz is that its silicon atoms share oxygen amongst themselves: Each oxygen atom in quartz is completing the charge balance for not one but two silicon atoms. That means the atomic scaffolding in that tiny grain of rock is so inter-bonded that a billion years of weathering can’t break it down....
The quartz-rich crystalline rock of the Precambrian era is very old. According to [Wisconsin’s State Geologist James] Robertson, these sands spent nearly a billion years near Earth’s surface, relatively free of overlying rock, where they underwent a cycle of repeated weathering, re-working, and rounding before being swept into the Cambrian sea that eventually deposited them in today’s Wisconsin....
After a billion years, all that was left was the most resistant of all minerals: quartz. And even the quartz started weathering after a while with the hard edges of the sand grains getting chipped away, leaving more spherical bits of quartz.
These well-sorted, atomically fortified grains fit the frac sand bill. This sand, Robertson says, has a crush resistance of 4,000- 6,000 pounds per square inch (psi). That means each grain has the ability to maintain its shape while thousands of pounds bears down on it. Together, the grains can and do bear even more pressure from overlying rock thousands of feet deep.
“You can’t have a bunch of wussy sand that falls apart when you squeeze it,” Robertson says.
ALSO: Recently, in The New Yorker:
"The World Is Running Out of Sand/It’s one of our most widely used natural resources, but it’s scarcer than you think."
Posts
83 comments:
Yuck! Fracking is causing all kinds of earthquakes in OK. Trying to work against, rather than with Nature, is not just stupid it is dangerous!
Sandpaper sand must not hail from Wisconsin. It loses its sharpness far too quickly.
sunsong said: "Fracking is causing all kinds of earthquakes in OK."
That is an interesting claim, sunsong. Can you explain the science behind how fracking is affecting the tectonic plates in Oklahoma, thus causing earthquakes?
Progressives have also been claimed global warming is causing earthquakes. Perhaps you know the science behind that as well?
Is Putin paying you, Sunsong? OPEC? Venezuela? They all hate fracking because it drives down the cost of oil.
Interesting to read the New Yorker article and disappearing sand, which has become a world wide problem. First they come for your sand, next for your water-- be careful Wisconsin:)
A whole new meaning to "Go pound sand."
Interesting article. I never really thought about 'wussy' sand but I suspect that the sand I'm sweeping into my brickwork is very wussy, indeed.
Very interesting. Where did Wisconsin sand come from? Was Wisconsin coastal at some point or is this lake sand or glacier related?
In my old age I'm becoming predictable. I rarely take the latest, greatest environmental scare very seriously. Nevertheless, I'm going to take a chance here and predict we are not going to run out of sand any time soon.
The glacier stopped in my part of Wisconsin at my place. I have lots of rocks. If Wisconsin rocks become worth something, I'm going to be a rich, rich man.
Wisconsin sand more than likely had it's origin with the glaciers.
Sand Valley in WI will soon be a global tourist destination.
I put up the text of an article explaining how the sand got here.
It took a billion years for this excellent sand to form.
What if a thousand years from now, human beings have a use for it that we can't currently imagine? Do they save the sand that they use in fracking? Can they reuse it?
You can’t have a bunch of wussy sand that falls down and yells, 'You body slammed me and broke my glasses' when you grab its phone.
Paul Ehrlich predicted England would run out of food by the year 2000. He made many other wrong predictions. Given all of the failed predictions why anyone believes Libs on this issue is nuts.
In a thousand years they'll be pumping oil down there to recover the sand.
You know, I read the article about how the sand formed, but by the time I decided to post, I had completely forgotten what I had just read. I can hardly wait to be 10 years older.
" Do they save the sand that they use in fracking? Can they reuse it? "
Nope.
Short version:
Pressure is increased until the oil bearing shale fractures. It goes quickly and a mix of water and sand rush into the joints formed. The sand is porous enough for the oil to flow out as it is pumped.
IOW the sand is sent way into the earth never (never say never) to be seen again.
I made a small investment a few months back in a fracking sand supply company that seemed to have made a smart move, buying up land in Arkansas that could transport its product more cheaply to fracking sites. So far the investment hasn't performed well- I wonder if this quality issue is the reason (my lack of knowledge to answer that question is the reason that I only made a small investment.)
Do they save the sand that they use in fracking? Can they reuse it?
How about the sand that goes into concrete ? Can that be recovered ?
Lefties are dense and resilient. Can we do something with them?
"Study links Oklahoma earthquake swarm with fracking operations
"Oklahoma has seen a boom in two things in recent years: oil and gas production and earthquakes.
"To many residents, the timing says it all. Before the oil and gas industry started drilling so many underground injection wells, they say, it was rare to feel an earthquake. Today, Oklahoma is the second-most seismically active state in the continental United States, behind California.
"Now they have some fresh scientific evidence to back up their observations. Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Colorado say a large swarm of earthquakes in central Oklahoma was probably caused by activity at a few highly active disposal wells, where wastewater from drilling operations — including hydraulic fracturing — is forced into deep geological formations for storage.
"Four high-rate disposal wells in southeast Oklahoma City probably induced a group of earthquakes known as the Jones swarm, which accounted for 20% of the seismicity in the central and eastern United States between 2008 and 2013, the team reported Thursday in the journal Science..."
la times
Speaking of sand, I see that Erin, Wisconsin, will host the US Open golf tournament next month. Will bunker shots be a bigger challenge because of the non-wussy sand? Will the common sand wedge prove inadequate?
Visit Wisconsin -- enjoy our beer, cheese, and sand.
Next New Yorker article...."We're Running Out of Dirt."
Sand is old. Good sand is even older. Who would have thought?
The OK earthquakes are the result of climate change. Has to be, since everything else is.
AllenS@8:12am/
IIRC from my undergrad geology classes those glacier deposited rocks on your property are called drumlin swarms.
One thing I keep coming for here at Althouse is clear, engaged writing, and I thoroughly enjoyed Emily Eggleston's charming explanation of Wisconsin sand.
Who could have imagined a report on sand from the "Wisconsin academy of sciences arts & letters" would NOT be a boring chore to read?
Thank you, althouse, for all you discover and share with us.
'The article — "Sand industry back in business in western Wisconsin" — doesn't explain why this great sand is in Wisconsin.'
It left Illinois because the welfare benefits are better in Wisconsin!!!
sunsong is probably right. In 1967 the Army Rocky Flats Plant at Rocky Mountain Arsenal just outside Denver was disposing of obsolete chemical and biological munitions by pumping the contents of their warheads mixed w. water into deep wells on the property. Minor earthquakes ensued and only stopped when the pumping stopped.
I got excited when I saw this headline as I have been sweeping pounds of sand off my kitchen floor in Door County for years and I thought that rather than dumping it in the garbage can, I could make serious coin by bagging and selling it. Unfortunately, the excellent sand seems to be in the western part of the state. Just my luck!
Since I believe California has overtaken us in milk production, perhaps we should change our state motto to "America's Sand Land." Cali and Florida might have better beaches, but we have the primo sand!
Just like anything else, when the cheap, good sand is scarce people will find substitutes that are either cheap but less good, or good but less cheap.
And as they are using up the cheap good sand the price will gradually get high enough that it will never actually all be gone. As the price gets higher the less-cheap alternatives are worth doing.
The world is not running out of sand.
Althouse, I'd guess that a thousand years from now, they'll be able to create the sand (or anything else they need) using some future-tech version of a 3D-printer to create the raw material at a molecular level. I'm not worried about the future. Humans have always been creative and ingenuous, and I expect that to continue as long as the species exists.
Peak sand! Peak sand! Run for the hills (or the dunes).
Sunsong
Note the repeated use of the word "probably". Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
Michael said to sunsong: "Note the repeated use of the word "probably".
Also note this: ...the timing says it all.
Correlation does not necessarily imply causation.
I was looking for the geology, chemistry and physics behind the "timing". Instead, we get "possible" correlations and coincidental anecdotal evidence.
The LA Time article link from sunsong gives us one possible explanation. There are lots of other possible explanations. Their "science" is little more than conjecture.
Science is much more interested in "accuracy" than politicians like Trump, who lies for what seems to be no reason at all. Newton's 'Theory of Gravity' is still considered to be "uncertain", but we used it to put a man on the moon! When scientists use the word "probable" or " probably" it means that it is the best available explanation for a class of phenomena. It is still called "the theory of relativity".
Discounting what scientists say seems to be a political view not based on accuracy, but on desire.
I think it was Ronald Reagan who said that if we put the government in charge of the Sahara, in five years we would run out of sand.
Interesting question about frac causing earthquakes. Hard to imagine they would be important. The curse and blessing of improved sensitivity and coverage of seismic monitoring systems is, like modern medicine, you get lots of false positives. Which for the Green hysterics are pure candy.
The process of injecting fluids thousands of feet down into the depths of the earth (as is done in waste injection as well as fracking) can lubricate or put extra pressure upon geologic faults — potentially prematurely releasing pent-up earthquake energies, which might indeed be very large. However, it cannot create/inject the energy that would drive FURTHER (sizeable) earthquakes. Waste injection/fracking cannot interject significant NEW energy into the tectonic system — large-earthquake energies as a result of geological movements/plate tectonics are FAR too great for that (on the order of hundreds of megatons of TNT). Fluid injection, contrariwise, can only lubricate and hence release stresses ALREADY built up within the rocks of the earth.
Arguably, releasing those stresses early — while the strain is still less than it would be when things would otherwise ultimately snap — could forestall potential destruction and save lives otherwise lost in the long run. One might even develop it as a technique to permanently keep dangerous earthquake faults lubricated and hence incapable of generating future disastrous quakes.
There's plenty of sand, have you seen the Sahara? Quality is an issue as is price at the point of use but there is plenty
As for fracking and earthquakes, scale is important, these OK quakes aren't exactly tectonic plates moving around, please remain calm
Michael McNeil: thanks, good point. Maybe the folks along the San Andreas should lobby for some, uh, prophylactic lubrication. After all, they espouse the precautionary principle and such a project would cost far less and do far more good than the Bullet Train to Nowhere.
Also good points about scale, both for the energies involved and for the volumes of material being used in frac. I would like to know how many cubic miles of accessible high-quality frac sand are estimated to exist in WI and elsewhere, and the rate at which the industry expects to use it. Are we down to our last 500 years of proven reserves? What does the cost of sand do to the cost of the end product: if we double the cost of this input, do I pay another penny at the pump, or a dollar?
Don't worry, Ann, I'm sure that you can take ordinary sand and process it-tumble or buff it perhaps, or melt it into glass and scatter the glass in microdroplets into a cooling vessel-into the desired characteristics of your fine Wisconsin sand. Why don't we utupshay about that until you guys have made all the money you're going to make off it.
Newton's 'Theory of Gravity' is still considered to be "uncertain", but we used it to put a man on the moon!
Newton's “theory of gravity” is not just “still considered… ‘uncertain’” — it has flat been disproven. Yes, it gets the planets to pretty much the right place at the right time — but then, so did the Ptolemaic (geocentric) system. So much for scientific “certainty.”
sunsong said...
"Study links Oklahoma earthquake swarm with fracking operations
The Oklahoma Geological Survey tells us that almost all OK earthquakes are caused by wastewater injection. Not Fracking.
That info is from, like scientists,you know, the guys(and gals) that interpret actual data. You know , data is like facts an shit. Not a reporter for the LA Times.
My point remains: It is not only stupid, it is dangerous to try and work "against rather than with Nature".
@ sunsong the airline industry was unavailable for comment
Consider the periodic analogs, CO2 and SiO2. Why does SiO2 so readily share its oxygens with its neighbors while carbon does not? Why doesn't silicon pull back, grow a pair of wings and fly like CO2 does?
Electronegativity
On another note, I recall a fierce battle in these pages with garage mahal over whether Wisconsin should mine and sell fracking sand. Is silicosis not an issue at all?
Hard to find good sand
Saudi Arabia actually has to import sand, for concrete if I remember correctly.
Who knew, you can sell sand to Arabs.
Discounting what Lefty ideologue scientists say is wise. Earthquakes have nothing to do with the fracking activity. Pro tip: Look at the depths involved. And earthquakes have nothing to do with AGW. Besides from the same asshole scientists, that is.
The lubrication hypothesis is fascinating!
Kind of like global warming- to the extent that AGW from greenhouse gasses is happening, it could be mitigating the next Ice Age.
sunsong said...
My point remains"
Well, no, actually it doesn't, since, as Rusty points out, it's based on ideology, not science.
Sunsong said...
"Newton's 'Theory of Gravity' is still considered to be "uncertain", but we used it to put a man on the moon!"
Why do ignorant leftists always turn to gravity for this point? If they actually understood what the current zeitgeist is in gravity research they would know it directly undercuts their stupid arguments.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Blogger Skipper said...
"Peak sand! Peak sand! Run for the hills (or the dunes)."
We are always short on something and the only solution is to put bureaucrats in charge.
---My point remains: It is not only stupid, it is dangerous to try and work "against rather than with Nature".---
Why wear clothes or eat anything found in nature then? You have no right working with nature to digest and change that very same nature, now do you? You usurp the nature you claim to be in synchronicity with.
Just stop all movement and in a few days you will be working with nature as nature, otherwise you are working against nature in literally every single action you take. Objects at rest naturally tend to stay at rest, unless you go selfishly muck it up.
And nature is such a kind, warmly loving, super-unhostile entity too, that only wants what is best for you and yours, even more greatly in WI than other areas not so temperate.
Shame shame shame!
sunsong said...
My point remains: It is not only stupid, it is dangerous to try and work "against rather than with Nature".
Zero critical thought went into this point that remains. Stop using electricity and plumbing please. The computer you used to post that is an affront to nature.
I believe polio is natural and we ought to work with it, starting with getting rid of any vaccines that put money in Zionist's coffers.
Who are we, mere us, to try and eradicate something as natural and successful as polio?
If we don't act as a steward for God's creation polio, are we not bound eventually in the eternal fire?
Michael McNeil said...
The process of injecting fluids thousands of feet down into the depths of the earth (as is done in waste injection as well as fracking) can lubricate or put extra pressure upon geologic faults — potentially prematurely releasing pent-up earthquake energies, which might indeed be very large. However, it cannot create/inject the energy that would drive FURTHER (sizeable) earthquakes. Waste injection/fracking cannot interject significant NEW energy into the tectonic system — large-earthquake energies as a result of geological movements/plate tectonics are FAR too great for that (on the order of hundreds of megatons of TNT). Fluid injection, contrariwise, can only lubricate and hence release stresses ALREADY built up within the rocks of the earth.
Please post here more.
I think before long we will be specifically pumping the waste material into active faults to release pressure causing larger numbers of smaller earthquakes and reducing the smaller number of massive catastrophic earthquakes.
It is a completely plausible theory that these materials would lubricate the fault lines and reduce the number of catastrophic quakes and loss of life along these fault lines.
The earthquakes aren't on the drilling, but on the reinjection of the brine water into the ground. Companies have looked at alternative options to water, such as liquid nitrogen fracking, while the Texas Railroad Commission, Texas A&M and Stanford University have been working on identifying fault lines beneath the state, in an effort to avoid allowing companies to place injection wells over those areas, which increases the odds of a frac-caused quake (which are normally in the 2.0-3.3 mag range).
As for the sand, Wisconsin's been the main supplier, but in recent years companies have been looking for alternative options closer to the drilling areas, because the sand has to get clearance for space on the rail lines taking it from where it's mined to where it's needed (apparently it's a lot easier to get a frac train from Point A to Point B if it makes its entire trip on one company's line, which in this case is usually either UP or BNSF).
Sunsong believes we should work with nature, not against it - except, of course, when it comes to artificially pumping estrogen into a male body and surgically removing penises, implanting breasts, shaving Adam's apples to make them less prominent and all the other very expensive procedures involved in changing a man into the woman he just "naturally" is.
That sort of tampering with nature is just fine, isn't it, sunsong?
My sister lives in Black River Falls, WI, the people of the area absolutely hate these frac sand mining operations.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/columnists/emily-mills/2017/03/31/mills-sand-mining-threatens-wisconsins-natural-resources/99867536/
"Wisconsin stands to continue losing major sections of pristine wetlands, areas that are crucial in helping to reduce impacts from storm damage and flooding, maintaining water quality, recharging groundwater and storing carbon, while also being important sites for biodiversity. Accidents and runoff are pretty much guarantees with mining projects. No amount of human remediation efforts can fully restore such sites once they're destroyed.
For the residents of the areas losing their wetlands, the impacts are very real and very immediate. We're already living in a time of increasing climate extremes and uncertainty. We should be making every effort to fortify our natural areas, not degrading them in a misguided and myopic effort to make a few quick bucks."
http://chippewa.com/news/local/wisconsin-landowners-look-to-courts-to-block-frac-sand-mining/article_a6ce18a7-ea5e-5f4f-9abb-aa9c920f13b8.html
The Baerbocks are among a handful of Jackson County residents who have turned to the courts in an effort to block proposed frac sand operations, claiming they constitute a nuisance before the first shovel of earth is moved.
According to complaints filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, two proposed mines with processing and loading facilities would infringe on the rights of six families who live on or own neighboring properties. The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction to permanently block construction of facilities at those sites.
“It’s going to be noise, it’s going to be light, silica dust,” said Tom Lister, the attorney representing the plaintiffs.
In filing anticipatory nuisance claims, Lister is applying a long-established legal principal in a way that has yet to be tested in regards to industrial sand mining in Wisconsin.
“No one has the right to use their land in a way that’s going to harm a neighboring property owner,” said Brian Ohm, a professor of urban planning at University of Wisconsin-Madison and the state specialist in land use law, environmental regulation and growth management for the UW Extension service. “It’s a fundamental notion we’ve had going back centuries.”
He also collected stories from people who live next to existing mines.
They complain of constant coughing. Trains blowing their horns every seven minutes for hours on end. Homes that vibrate, cracked walls and foundations. Patios sinking into the earth. Sand in their toilets. Appliances that give out after becoming clogged with sediment.
Dust coats their vehicles in the morning, and they can no longer open their windows.
They put blankets and black plastic over their windows because of the flood lights. They leave their televisions on all night to drown out the noise.
One couple said they’ve stopped doing upkeep on the home they built just 13 years ago in Taylor. With a mine less than 300 yards away, they say the home has lost so much value “we would just be wasting money.”"
Eminent domain. Buy them out. Kelo is still the law of the land. If the property has lost so much value then it should be cheap to do.
Note that the author confuses principle with principal. Tsk tsk.
“No one has the right to use their land in a way that’s going to harm a neighboring property owner,” said Brian Ohm,
Does that include filing a lawsuit and blocking the development of a property? Someone stands to make money by mining the sand that is on their property. Not allowing them to do so is harm.
If there is a law or a zoning ordinance in place they have a leg to stand on in court. If they are just making up some right out of nothing then they don't.
There is a reason we have laws. The left just wants to change the rules whenever they feel like it not understanding how this undermines our freedom.
I wonder how our resident scientist feels about the beans used to increase the viscosity of the fracking fluid? Water is OK but beans really hold everything together. So we we are injecting beans deep into the earth. Maybe those"earthquakes" are just beans turning to farts?
It is always easy to spot the next front of attack against any kind of fossil fuel production. "Save Wisconsin's Sand" is that next front. A commenter above wrote "Peak Sand, Peak Sand" as a joke, but mark my words- it should have been written seriously.
I went to geology dot com and there is a good article on frac sand. The demand currently runs about 30+ million tons a year (several thousand tons/well). There is not really a shortage, just a need to characterize the various sands at various known sites for glassmaking sand and metallurgical sand. There are large sandstone formations and sand deposits through Wisconsin, Minnesota, other Midwest states.
The scale here is deceptive. Thirty million tons of sand sounds like a lot until you think about the density. It's maybe a small hill --100 meters high by 600 meters square. A few city blocks.
I checked sand density and it is about 100 pounds/cu ft or 20 cu ft per ton. So 30 million tons is 600 million cu ft or a pile 150 feet high by 2000 feet square. Again: a fairly small hill.
Of course that's the output after processing and sifting. Probably 10x that much material gets mined or disturbed. To support a fantastically valuable industry. Sounds like a win to me.
Is Wisconsin really producing the sand, or is it rather the leading "location" ?
Liberalism 3.0 - the virtual sex revolution is imperiled.
I see that Erin, Wisconsin, will host the US Open golf tournament next month. Will bunker shots be a bigger challenge because of the non-wussy sand?
I can attest while being in the bunkers at Erin Hills is unfortunate it is excellent sand and not at all wussy...
Interestingly enough some of the best bunker sand I've experienced isn't sand but slag from mining. It's stable but toxic stuff that's gaining new life as proppant for...you guessed it- fracking..
My grandpa, who lived with his wife in Siren Wisconsin, used to comment occasionally about how worthless the soil was in the northwest part of the state. "You can't grow anything. It's all blowsand," I remember him saying (something like that).
Google "Ottawa sand."
Well, if it becomes genuinely scarce, prices will rise and alternatives will be found.
I think it was Milton Friedman who is credited with saying, "If you put government in charge of the Sahara, in ten years it'd be out of sand."
Sand and gravel quarries live quite well in suburban areas.Yhis part of Illinois has more than a few surrounded by housing. Inga and hr friends are anti progress. Next we'll be hearing stiries of her and her friends "monkey wrenching".
"My point remains: It is not only stupid, it is dangerous to try and work "against rather than with Nature"."
95% of your, or my, continued existence is predicated on working against nature. If it wasn't, we'd of been dead long ago. Mother Nature never counted on people like you, either.
". . . it's happening at a time when some communities are suffering because agricultural prices are low."
Yes. It's just awful. We need the government to increase our food prices. Then we will no longer suffer from the scourge of low food prices. Good observation, professor geologist and adviser.
Also, if a lack of the "right" sand gets rid of the "sport" of beach volleyball, I'd describe that as a feature and not a flaw ...
southcentralpa said...
Also, if a lack of the "right" sand gets rid of the "sport" of beach volleyball, I'd describe that as a feature and not a flaw
Said the guy who never spent a pleasant afternoon warching the national womans beach vollyball tournament at Huntington Beach, CA.
Aged perverts three deep along the railings of the pier.
@althouse I read that, but I don't understand - this is sand formed by atmospheric/geologic silicon mixing with oxygen to form quartz in the ground and then ground up (by glaciers, I guess)? I'd just never heard of quartz sand, I guess. Only sand from silicon/shells.
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