If we are extracting millions of barrels a day of crude oil from the ground, why doesn't the earth collapse?

Answer 1

It does in some places. But water and other things is sometimes pumped into the ground which helps the ground not to collapse. And in other plaes the ground may be strong enough to not collapse.

Answer 2

In the earth's crust, in order to hold a fluid in a rock (such as oil or water), there has to be empty space for it. This space is called porosity. The particles of rock that make up the bulk of the space support the weight of the material. When the fluid is removed, the rock remains in place.

If the fluid is under enough pressure, it can support the weight of the rock or sediment. (If you're interested in this phenomenon, you can look for effective stress, effective pressure, or Terzaghi's equation). When the fluid is removed (or expelled in some case), the overlying material collapses. Areas of the earth where we pump out too much water and/or oil can actually sink. This is a contributing factor to why Venice is sinking (but this is not the only reason in the case of Venice). Parts of Houston have also sunk a few centimeters because of both oil and water pumping.


Now, in some circumstance, the material above DOES collapse when the fluid is removed. When water moving underground through a cave dries up or diverts, the ground above it can sometimes collapse--this phenomenon is called a sinkhole.

So, in summary, sometimes the earth does collapse (a little bit) when you pump out oil...but more often than not, it doesn't because the rock matrix supports the weight of the overlying material, not the fluid.

Answer 3

Firstly, the earth is so large that what we take out doesn't matter in that respect. If the earth is an apple, we're peeling a little piece of skin off with our fingernail. Also, they will the cavity with water so it doesn't collapse, and so that they can get all of the oil because the oil floats on the water.

Answer 4

In some areas where we drill for oil, it does. However we have learned that to avoid this we need to replace the oil with something. That something is usually water or seawater depening upon the location. As we pump water into the cavity in the ground, the oil stays on top of the water and brings it to the top of the cavity. We siphon off the oil from the top of the cavity.

Answer 5

i think it has to do with the fact that it is under pressure so there are rocks and stuff ready to take its place.

And it would take more than millions of barrels of oil because the earth is so big and its crust is likewise

also i think oil reserves are more vertical than horizontal so it wouldnt collapse as weasily

Answer 6

As we pump oil out we will get more salt water and when we get very small amount of oil and mostly salt water. The oil os displaced with salt water which is heavier than the oil.

Answer 7

I think that eventually one day parts of the earth will collapse, we just don't know when.

Answer 8

It does under the weight of the oil fumes in the air. gigatonnes

Earthquakes result. They become more destructive when we steal the earth 's tectonic lubrication.

Ob1

Answer 9

Because they are pumping Black Ju-Ju-Bee's back in the ground.

Nobody likes the taste of black licorice anyway so there is a over-stock of them everywhere.

Answer 10

It does collapse. Thats why we had that Tsunami.