The 11-month
precursory fault activation of the 2019 ML 5.6
earthquake in the Weiyuan shale gas field, China

Jinping ZI; Yuyun YANG; Hongfeng YANG; Jinrong SU

doi:10.1038/s43247-025-02151-1

The 11-month precursory fault activation of the 2019 M_L 5.6 earthquake in the Weiyuan shale gas field, China

Jinping ZI, Yuyun YANG, Hongfeng YANG^*, Jinrong SU

^*Corresponding author for this work

Division of Industrial Data Science

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities such as hydraulic fracturing (HF) can trigger destructive earthquakes, the triggering mechanisms of which are still in debate. We utilize near-fault seismic recordings to study the preparatory phase of the 2019 ML 5.6 earthquake in the Weiyuan shale gas field (WSGF), Sichuan Basin, China, which struck 3 months after stimulation completion. This is one of the largest HF-triggered earthquakes worldwide. We observed an 11-month-long precursory fault activation, during which continuous seismicity illuminated the fault plane and provided warnings for a potential destructive earthquake. The fault activation is a consequence of injections in multiple HF well pads, with a variety of mechanisms at play. Numerical simulation reveals that the occurrence of the mainshock involves stress perturbation from post-injection aseismic slip. This work promotes our understanding of HF-induced earthquakes and suggests incorporating long-term near-fault observations and taking post-injection aseismic slip into account for effective hazard management.

Original language	English
Article number	175
Number of pages	15
Journal	Communications Earth and Environment
Volume	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02151-1
Publication status	Published - 3 Mar 2025

Bibliographical note

Contributions: J.Z., Y.Y., and H.Y. designed the study, interpreted the results, and edited the paper. J.Z. and Y.Y. jointly wrote the paper and produced visualization. J.Z. ran earthquake relocation and analyzed the earthquake catalog data. Y.Y. ran numerical simulations and analyzed their results. J.S. provided the earthquake catalog.

Funding

H.Y. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U2139203), the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong (No. 14303721, 14306122), and the Faculty of Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. J.Z. is supported by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme. Y.Y. is supported by the Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, University Grants Committee, Hong Kong (PDFS2223-4S08). J.S. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U2139203). Acknowledgment for the active fault data support from China Earthquake Disaster Prevention Center, Seismic Active Fault Survey Data Center (https://www.activefault-datacenter.cn).

Access to Document

10.1038/s43247-025-02151-1Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "The 11-month precursory fault activation of the 2019 ML 5.6 earthquake in the Weiyuan shale gas field, China",

abstract = "Anthropogenic activities such as hydraulic fracturing (HF) can trigger destructive earthquakes, the triggering mechanisms of which are still in debate. We utilize near-fault seismic recordings to study the preparatory phase of the 2019 ML 5.6 earthquake in the Weiyuan shale gas field (WSGF), Sichuan Basin, China, which struck 3 months after stimulation completion. This is one of the largest HF-triggered earthquakes worldwide. We observed an 11-month-long precursory fault activation, during which continuous seismicity illuminated the fault plane and provided warnings for a potential destructive earthquake. The fault activation is a consequence of injections in multiple HF well pads, with a variety of mechanisms at play. Numerical simulation reveals that the occurrence of the mainshock involves stress perturbation from post-injection aseismic slip. This work promotes our understanding of HF-induced earthquakes and suggests incorporating long-term near-fault observations and taking post-injection aseismic slip into account for effective hazard management.",

author = "Jinping ZI and Yuyun YANG and Hongfeng YANG and Jinrong SU",

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AU - SU, Jinrong

N1 - Contributions: J.Z., Y.Y., and H.Y. designed the study, interpreted the results, and edited the paper. J.Z. and Y.Y. jointly wrote the paper and produced visualization. J.Z. ran earthquake relocation and analyzed the earthquake catalog data. Y.Y. ran numerical simulations and analyzed their results. J.S. provided the earthquake catalog.

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N2 - Anthropogenic activities such as hydraulic fracturing (HF) can trigger destructive earthquakes, the triggering mechanisms of which are still in debate. We utilize near-fault seismic recordings to study the preparatory phase of the 2019 ML 5.6 earthquake in the Weiyuan shale gas field (WSGF), Sichuan Basin, China, which struck 3 months after stimulation completion. This is one of the largest HF-triggered earthquakes worldwide. We observed an 11-month-long precursory fault activation, during which continuous seismicity illuminated the fault plane and provided warnings for a potential destructive earthquake. The fault activation is a consequence of injections in multiple HF well pads, with a variety of mechanisms at play. Numerical simulation reveals that the occurrence of the mainshock involves stress perturbation from post-injection aseismic slip. This work promotes our understanding of HF-induced earthquakes and suggests incorporating long-term near-fault observations and taking post-injection aseismic slip into account for effective hazard management.

AB - Anthropogenic activities such as hydraulic fracturing (HF) can trigger destructive earthquakes, the triggering mechanisms of which are still in debate. We utilize near-fault seismic recordings to study the preparatory phase of the 2019 ML 5.6 earthquake in the Weiyuan shale gas field (WSGF), Sichuan Basin, China, which struck 3 months after stimulation completion. This is one of the largest HF-triggered earthquakes worldwide. We observed an 11-month-long precursory fault activation, during which continuous seismicity illuminated the fault plane and provided warnings for a potential destructive earthquake. The fault activation is a consequence of injections in multiple HF well pads, with a variety of mechanisms at play. Numerical simulation reveals that the occurrence of the mainshock involves stress perturbation from post-injection aseismic slip. This work promotes our understanding of HF-induced earthquakes and suggests incorporating long-term near-fault observations and taking post-injection aseismic slip into account for effective hazard management.

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The 11-month precursory fault activation of the 2019 ML 5.6 earthquake in the Weiyuan shale gas field, China