National Geographic (sub required) has a superb story on the shale boom in the Bakken formation in N. Dakota. The video below shows how hydraulic fracking technology - horizontal drilling and high-pressure fluid pumping which helps free loose stubborn oil and gas deposits - works
Along with the Barnett formation in Texas and the Marcellus formation which stretches north from Pennsylvania and other shale deposits, they are reshaping the global energy landscape. They will reduce our dependence on the Middle East and Russia and maybe even make us net exporters of carbon fuels in the next few years, but also complicate investment in alternative fuels. And fracking is causing concerns about consuming precious water, and dry aquifers causing sinkholes and earthquakes – and of course, on the continued dependence on carbon fuels.
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