Earthquakes in Tuatapere Oil Exploration Zone.

Now, it's common knowledge that Fantail is a fan of the environment. Not so much a fanatic for the environment; but we know that unlike money, there are some things in this world that once gone can never be brought back. Christchurch earthquake cost 180+ lives - imagine your son/daughter/parent dead, and times 180. And lording evolutionary triumph over the millions of species of plants and animals on this planet that are subject to our whims is no triumph at all... It is subhuman, but you get to a certain strata of wealth and you look down, and it happens. Picture apes beating their chests at their "amazing" ability to blow up rock or tame miles of trees just to cover the world with banana trees - and their audience, their market, applauds like chimps.

With this thoughts of applauding chimps, the instance of three significant earthquakes all 40km west of Tuatapere caught my eye.

It is unusual, for them to all be centred at the same place. Tremors normally travel, setting off other faults - I know this having been raised in Wellington, one of the most earthquake threatened cities in the world. Geologists know very little about what causes earthquakes - but we know that fracking does. And corporates have tried to keep fracking's effects secret from the public by claiming the techniques used to destroy lives and environments is a trade secret.

What we know is that a lot of these advanced (read desperate) exploration techniques involve seismic testing and exploding faultines (which is what fracking is, in effect). There are reports the Soviets knew oil and gas had little to do with dead dinosaurs and all to do with seismic activity and tectonic plates. Since the USSR was dismantled, this knowledge floated West and has resulted in this century's brave new prospecting ventures. Shame for anyone actually living near this activity.

So Tuatapere is interesting because of the increase in global and local activity. Since the National government came to power in 2008, a large number of oil and gas exploration projects have gone ahead. Wellington is going to be subject to one of these ventures, just out to sea, 2.5km deep, right on the faultline, if our undemocratic government has its way. And Tuatapere? Well  compare with the permits for the Great Southland Basin. Oil exploration permits have already been issued, dead bang in the 40km zone (many of the permit details actually lead to dead links, explained as a consequence of website redesign).

We should be demanding an instant moratorium on any of these new exploration techniques.Christchurch has taught us that NZ can not risk triggering earthquakes, especially under governments that put profits before people. You know the apes that plant the trees will be all too happy to pick the bananas; but we're gonna be left picking up the peels.