Abstract
As concerns rise over damaging earthquakes related to industrial activities such as hydraulic fracturing, geothermal energy extraction and wastewater disposal, it is essential to understand how subsurface fluid injection triggers seismicity even in distant regions where pore pressure diffusion cannot reach. Previous studies suggested long-range poroelastic stressing and aseismic slip as potential triggering mechanisms. In this study, we show that significant stress transfer far ahead of injection-induced aseismic slip can travel at much higher speeds and is a viable mechanism for distant earthquake triggering. It could also explain seismicity migration that is much faster than aseismic slip front propagation. We demonstrate the application of these concepts with seismicity triggered by hydraulic fracturing operations in Weiyuan shale gas field, China. The speed of stress transfer is dependent on the background stress level and injection rate, and can be almost an order of magnitude higher than that of the aseismic slip front.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 16626 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 13 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 3 Oct 2023 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Contributions: Y.Y. designed the study, ran all simulations and wrote the paper. Y.Y. and H.Y. jointly interpreted results and edited the paper. J.Z. provided earthquake catalog data, helped with visualization and provided feedback.Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Springer Nature Limited.
Funding
H.Y. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U2139203) and the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong (No. 14303721). Y.Y. is supported by the Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong (PDFS2223-4S08). J.Z. is supported by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme. All authors are supported by the Faculty of Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.