Temporal Correlation Between Seismic Moment and Injection Volume for an Induced Earthquake Sequence in Central Oklahoma

The rapidly increased earthquake rate in the central United States has been linked with wastewater injection. While the overall understanding appears clear at large scales, the interaction between injection and faulting at smaller scales within individual sequences is still not clear. For an earthqu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Solid earth 2018-04, Vol.123 (4), p.3047-3064
Main Authors: Chen, Xiaowei, Haffener, Jackson, Goebel, Thomas H. W., Meng, Xiaofeng, Peng, Zhigang, Chang, Jefferson C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
b value
Correlation
Correlation analysis
Disposal wells
Earthquakes
Evolution
fluid diffusion
Geophysics
induced seismicity
Injection
Matched filters
Modelling
Pore pressure
Pressure
Seismic activity
seismic moment
Seismicity
Sequencing
Wastewater
Wastewater injection
Wells
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Summary:The rapidly increased earthquake rate in the central United States has been linked with wastewater injection. While the overall understanding appears clear at large scales, the interaction between injection and faulting at smaller scales within individual sequences is still not clear. For an earthquake sequence in central Oklahoma, we conduct finer‐scale analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution of seismicity and pore pressure modeling. The pore pressure modeling suggests that nearby wells show much stronger correlation with earthquake sequence evolution. Detailed temporal analysis found correlation between earthquake rate, seismic moment, and injection rates from wells in close proximity. However, the observed maximum magnitude (Mmax) is about 1 order of magnitude smaller than expected based on a theoretical relationship between Mmax and cumulative volume. This discrepancy may point toward additional parameters, such as fault size and stress, which influence Mmax. The lower Mmax is consistent with the truncated Gutenberg‐Richter distribution observed from matched filter detected catalog. Overall, the detailed observations suggest that it is possible to resolve relationships between individual disposal wells and induced earthquake sequences. Key Points Systematic earthquake migration suggests fluid pressure diffusion triggering Cumulative seismic moment significantly correlates with cumulative injection volume Magnitude‐frequency distribution deviates from Gutenberg‐Richter relation for this induced sequence
ISSN:2169-9313
2169-9356
DOI:10.1002/2017JB014694