Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as fracking is a method of acquiring natural gas and oil buried deep below Earth’s surface. First, a hole is drilled several hundred meters below the surface. Once the desired depth is reached, a horizontal hole gets drilled from the bottom of the well. Strong pumps send a mixture of water, sand, and assorted chemicals into the well which fractures the rocks storing natural gas [1]. The gas is then collected in the fracking fluid and taken to facilities for purification. The fracking fluid is stored in a ground well until the gas from underground is depleted. Upon draining all the natural gas from a well, the fracking fluid is put back into the well and sealed off [1].
Figure 1: Process outline for basic fracking site [6]