Visited Eastern Montana last week. Although the Bakkan Oil
Boom has slowed with falling oil prices, oil derricks have become a ubiquitous feature of a landscape that used to be all cattle, wheat fields and dusty dirt roads. I have mixed feelings. The oil money is a welcome boost to the struggling local economy, and the 3D seismic monitoring used to guide fracking is an outstanding example of cutting-edge geophysics in action. Concerns about induced seismicity are minor in this region where the population density is so low, but worry over the long-term environmental consequences remains.
