Induced seismicity provides insight into why earthquake ruptures stop
TLDR
A theoretical model of rupture arrest indicates that most of the injection-induced earthquakes have been self-arrested, and theoretical estimates of the size of ruptures induced by localized pore-pressure perturbations and propagating on prestressed faults are developed.Abstract:
Injection-induced earthquakes pose a serious seismic hazard but also offer an opportunity to gain insight into earthquake physics. Currently used models relating the maximum magnitude of injection-induced earthquakes to injection parameters do not incorporate rupture physics. We develop theoretical estimates, validated by simulations, of the size of ruptures induced by localized pore-pressure perturbations and propagating on prestressed faults. Our model accounts for ruptures growing beyond the perturbed area and distinguishes self-arrested from runaway ruptures. We develop a theoretical scaling relation between the largest magnitude of self-arrested earthquakes and the injected volume and find it consistent with observed maximum magnitudes of injection-induced earthquakes over a broad range of injected volumes, suggesting that, although runaway ruptures are possible, most injection-induced events so far have been self-arrested ruptures.read more
Citations
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Hydraulic Fracturing-Induced Seismicity
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Fluid-induced aseismic fault slip outpaces pore-fluid migration
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Controlling fluid-induced seismicity during a 6.1-km-deep geothermal stimulation in Finland
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Lei Li,Jingqiang Tan,David A. Wood,Zhengguang Zhao,Dirk Becker,Qiao Lyu,Biao Shu,Haichao Chen +7 more
TL;DR: A review of the current status of research concerning induced seismicity monitoring for shale hydraulic fracturing can be found in this article, where the authors identify challenges and prospects associated with multi-disciplines for future research and applications.
References
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New Empirical Relationships among Magnitude, Rupture Length, Rupture Width, Rupture Area, and Surface Displacement
TL;DR: In this article, a series of empirical relationships among moment magnitude (M ), surface rupture length, subsurface rupture length and downdip rupture width, and average surface displacement per event are developed.
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Thomas C. Hanks,Hiroo Kanamori +1 more
TL;DR: The nearly coincident forms of the relations between seismic moment M_0 and the magnitudes M_L, M_S, and M_w imply a moment magnitude scale M = ⅔ log M_ 0 - 10.7 as mentioned in this paper.
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Theoretical basis of some empirical relations in seismology
Hiroo Kanamori,Don L. Anderson +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, an empirical relation involving seismic moment M, energy E, magnitude M, and fault dimension L (or area S) is discussed on the basis of an extensive set of earthquake data (M_S ≧ 6) and simple crack and dynamic dislocation models.
Journal ArticleDOI
Injection-Induced Earthquakes
TL;DR: The current understanding of the causes and mechanics of earthquakes caused by human activity, including injection of wastewater into deep formations and emerging technologies related to oil and gas recovery, is reviewed.
Journal ArticleDOI
How faulting keeps the crust strong
John Townend,Mark D. Zoback +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors demonstrate that such high permeabilities can maintain approximately hydrostatic fluid pressures at depths comparable to the thickness of the seismogenic crust, leading to the counterintuitive result that faulting keeps intraplate crust inherently strong by preventing pore pressures greater than hydrostatic from persisting at depth.