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      Seismicity at the Castor gas reservoir driven by pore pressure diffusion and asperities loading

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          Abstract

          The 2013 seismic sequence at the Castor injection platform offshore Spain, including three earthquakes of magnitude 4.1, occurred during the initial filling of a planned Underground Gas Storage facility. The Castor sequence is one of the most important cases of induced seismicity in Europe and a rare example of seismicity induced by gas injection into a depleted oil field. Here we use advanced seismological techniques applied to an enhanced waveform dataset, to resolve the geometry of the faults, develop a greatly enlarged seismicity catalog and record details of the rupture kinematics. The sequence occurred by progressive fault failure and unlocking, with seismicity initially migrating away from the injection points, triggered by pore pressure diffusion, and then back again, breaking larger asperities loaded to higher stress and producing the largest earthquakes. Seismicity occurred almost exclusively on a secondary fault, located below the reservoir, dipping opposite from the reservoir bounding fault.

          Abstract

          The 2013 Castor seismic sequence, offshore Spain, is a rare example of seismicity induced by gas storage operations. Here we show that early seismicity marked the progressive failure of a fault in response to pore pressure diffusion, while later larger earthquakes resulted by the failure of loaded asperities.

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          Global Multi-Resolution Topography synthesis

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            Induced earthquakes. Sharp increase in central Oklahoma seismicity since 2008 induced by massive wastewater injection.

            Unconventional oil and gas production provides a rapidly growing energy source; however, high-production states in the United States, such as Oklahoma, face sharply rising numbers of earthquakes. Subsurface pressure data required to unequivocally link earthquakes to wastewater injection are rarely accessible. Here we use seismicity and hydrogeological models to show that fluid migration from high-rate disposal wells in Oklahoma is potentially responsible for the largest swarm. Earthquake hypocenters occur within disposal formations and upper basement, between 2- and 5-kilometer depth. The modeled fluid pressure perturbation propagates throughout the same depth range and tracks earthquakes to distances of 35 kilometers, with a triggering threshold of ~0.07 megapascals. Although thousands of disposal wells operate aseismically, four of the highest-rate wells are capable of inducing 20% of 2008 to 2013 central U.S. seismicity.
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              Injection-induced earthquakes.

              Earthquakes in unusual locations have become an important topic of discussion in both North America and Europe, owing to the concern that industrial activity could cause damaging earthquakes. It has long been understood that earthquakes can be induced by impoundment of reservoirs, surface and underground mining, withdrawal of fluids and gas from the subsurface, and injection of fluids into underground formations. Injection-induced earthquakes have, in particular, become a focus of discussion as the application of hydraulic fracturing to tight shale formations is enabling the production of oil and gas from previously unproductive formations. Earthquakes can be induced as part of the process to stimulate the production from tight shale formations, or by disposal of wastewater associated with stimulation and production. Here, I review recent seismic activity that may be associated with industrial activity, with a focus on the disposal of wastewater by injection in deep wells; assess the scientific understanding of induced earthquakes; and discuss the key scientific challenges to be met for assessing this hazard.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                simone.cesca@gfz-potsdam.de
                Journal
                Nat Commun
                Nat Commun
                Nature Communications
                Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                2041-1723
                10 August 2021
                10 August 2021
                2021
                : 12
                : 4783
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.23731.34, ISNI 0000 0000 9195 2461, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences Potsdam, ; Potsdam, Germany
                [2 ]GRID grid.4489.1, ISNI 0000000121678994, Instituto Andaluz de Geofísica, , Universidad de Granada, ; Granada, Spain
                [3 ]GRID grid.4489.1, ISNI 0000000121678994, Departamento de Física Teórica y del Cosmos, , Universidad de Granada, ; Granada, Spain
                [4 ]GRID grid.5395.a, ISNI 0000 0004 1757 3729, Department of Earth Sciences, , University of Pisa, ; Pisa, Italy
                [5 ]GRID grid.5801.c, ISNI 0000 0001 2156 2780, Swiss Seismological Service, ETH Zurich, ; Zurich, Switzerland
                [6 ]GRID grid.4336.2, ISNI 0000 0001 2237 3826, National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS, ; Trieste, Italy
                [7 ]GRID grid.11348.3f, ISNI 0000 0001 0942 1117, Institute of Geosciences, , University of Potsdam, ; Potsdam-Golm, Germany
                [8 ]GRID grid.6835.8, Departament de Física-EPSEB, , UPC Barcelona Tech, ; Barcelona, Spain
                [9 ]GRID grid.6162.3, ISNI 0000 0001 2174 6723, Observatori de l’Ebre (OE), CSIC—Universitat Ramon Llull, ; Roquetes, Spain
                [10 ]GRID grid.168010.e, ISNI 0000000419368956, Department of Geophysics, , Stanford University, ; Stanford, CA USA
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9419-3904
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2858-9756
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5536-1717
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3675-6825
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0612-662X
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8438-2776
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6432-7422
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8378-4979
                Article
                24949
                10.1038/s41467-021-24949-1
                8355105
                34376685
                4100b93a-615a-42d2-b259-d7032c601636
                © The Author(s) 2021

                Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 8 March 2021
                : 8 July 2021
                Funding
                Funded by: European Union RFCS project PostMinQuake grant 899192
                Funded by: Spanish National FEDER/MINECO Project PID2019-109608GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, FEDER/Junta de Andalucía project A-RNM-421-UGR18 and Research group RNM104 of the Junta de Andalucía
                Funded by: FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/100010665, EC | EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation H2020 | H2020 Priority Excellent Science | H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (H2020 Excellent Science - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions);
                Award ID: 790900
                Award Recipient :
                Categories
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                © The Author(s) 2021

                Uncategorized
                geophysics,seismology
                Uncategorized
                geophysics, seismology

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