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fracking

engineering
Also known as: fraccing, fracing, hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracking(Show More)

fracking, in natural gas and petroleum production, injection of a fluid at high pressure into an underground rock formation in order to open fissures and allow trapped gas or crude oil to flow through a pipe to a wellhead at the surface. Employed in combination with improved techniques for drilling horizontally through selected rock layers, fracking has opened up vast natural gas deposits in the United States and elsewhere. At the same time, the rapid...