Seismicity triggered by fluid injection-induced aseismic slip

Anthropogenic fluid injections are known to induce earthquakes. The mechanisms involved are poorly understood, and our ability to assess the seismic hazard associated with geothermal energy or unconventional hydrocarbon production remains limited. We directly measure fault slip and seismicity induce...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2015-06, Vol.348 (6240), p.1224-1226
Main Authors: Guglielmi, Yves, Cappa, Frédéric, Avouac, Jean-Philippe, Henry, Pierre, Elsworth, Derek
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Earth Sciences
Earthquakes
Fluid injection
Friction
Geological faults
Monitoring
Sciences of the Universe
Seismicity
Slip
Waste water
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Anthropogenic fluid injections are known to induce earthquakes. The mechanisms involved are poorly understood, and our ability to assess the seismic hazard associated with geothermal energy or unconventional hydrocarbon production remains limited. We directly measure fault slip and seismicity induced by fluid injection into a natural fault. We observe highly dilatant and slow [∼4 micrometers per second (μm/s)] aseismic slip associated with a 20-fold increase of permeability, which transitions to faster slip (∼10 μm/s) associated with reduced dilatancy and micro-earthquakes. Most aseismic slip occurs within the fluid-pressurized zone and obeys a rate-strengthening friction law $\mathrm{\mu }=0.67+0.45\mathrm{ln}\left(\frac{\mathrm{v}}{{\mathrm{v}}_{0}}\right)$ with v0 = 0.1 μm/s. Fluid injection primarily triggers aseismic slip in this experiment, with micro-earthquakes being an indirect effect mediated by aseismic creep.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aab0476