eli5: what happens to the areas that contain water and oil when we pump it all to the surface, why are there not sinkholes everywhere?
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While we picture petroleum as sitting in a massive well like bubble, that’s not really the case. It’s more like sucking water from soaked sand. The hole we drill allows the pressure from the surrounding rock to push the liquid petroleum our into the gap and up. The surrounding area is still stable rock. Now with all the pressure from the petroleum gone, some shifting can occur but it’s minor. On average the occasional drilling induced quake is only about 2-4 on the Richter scale. Which is only detectable on sensitive instruments. You wouldn’t even feel it.
Now this is with traditional oil drilling, not fracking. Fracking is a whole different process which brings its own set of problems.
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