hydraulic fracturing

American  

noun

1. a process in which fractures in rocks below the earth's surface are opened and widened by injecting chemicals and liquids at high pressure: used especially to extract natural gas or oil.

---

Etymology

Origin of hydraulic fracturing

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

By drilling horizontally and injecting water underground at high pressures—similarly to how oil companies use hydraulic fracturing to get more oil out of shale rock—Fervo says it can expand the kinds of areas where geothermal energy production is possible.

From Barron's

New technologies such as hydraulic fracturing have turned it from major importer to exporter.

From Barron's

Both Liberty Energy and ProPetro, best known for their expertise in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have jumped headlong into the data- center game.

From Barron's

WaterBridge manages about 2,500 miles of pipelines and 197 facilities capable of handling roughly 189 million gallons of water daily, helping energy companies dispose of the high volumes of wastewater they produce as a byproduct of oil-and-gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing.

From The Wall Street Journal

For example, with hydraulic fracturing, a technique that is used to break underground rocks with pressurized liquids for extracting oil and gas, a deep rock formation that previously didn't have any detectable number of microbes might have a sudden bloom of microbial activity.

From Science Daily