The Marcellus Shale is a naturally fractured rock because of the combination of the quantity of organic
matter trapped in the rock and the historical plat tectonic activity that occurred in the area. The conversion
from organic material to natural gas in the Marcellus created pressure in the fluids trapped in the rocks, which
helped created natural fractures in the rock, called joints. These joints were further exacerbated by the collision of plates during the Alleghanian Orogeny, a mountain-building event that began around 350 million years
ago. This combination of forces created the majority of the joints in the Marcellus Shale. Because the joints
were formed from the same processes, most of the joints in the Marcellus Shale run in roughly parallel “sets” in one of two directions.