Fracking UK shale: Understanding earthquake risk

This guide explains the risks of tremors and what the UK government is doing to reduce the negative impact of hydraulic fracturing that may cause tremors, small scale earthquakes. The risk of tremors has introduced new controls and checks for operators using hydraulic fracturing, including use of all available geological information to assess the location of faults, use of British Geological Survey records to assess baseline levels for seismic activity, injecting as little fluid as necessary into the rock during fracturing, and monitoring seismic activity during and after fracturing.

Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, a technique used in the extraction of gas and oil from "shale" rock formations by injecting water at high pressure.