It has long been known that human activities such as waste fluid disposal and reservoir impoundment may cause earthquakes. Recently, anthropogenic activities to tackle the increasing energy demand and to address clima...It has long been known that human activities such as waste fluid disposal and reservoir impoundment may cause earthquakes. Recently, anthropogenic activities to tackle the increasing energy demand and to address climate change issues are also reported to induce earthquakes. These activities have a common attribute in that fluids are injected and extracted underground and induce spatiotemporal changes of pore pressure and stress, which may cause slip on faults. Induced earthquakes not only pose significant impacts on seismic hazard assessment and preparation, but also raise the question to the society as how to balance the economic needs of resources development and the public's concerns about potential environmental impacts. Here we review the observations of fluid-injection/extraction induced earthquakes, ground deformation associated with these activities, and their physical mechanisms. Furthermore, we discuss the influences of induced earthquakes on seismic hazard models, regulatory policies on these anthropogenic activities, and current development of academic, industrial and government initiatives and collaborations in order to understand this intriguing phenomenon and address associated challenges.展开更多
Anthropogenic induced seismicity has been widely reported and investigated in many regions,including the shale gas fields in the Sichuan basin,where the frequency of earthquakes has increased substantially since the c...Anthropogenic induced seismicity has been widely reported and investigated in many regions,including the shale gas fields in the Sichuan basin,where the frequency of earthquakes has increased substantially since the commencement of fracking in late 2014.However,the details of how earthquakes are induced remain poorly understood,partly due to lack of high-resolution spatial-temporal data documenting the evolution of such seismic events.Most previous studies have been based on a diffusive earthquake catalog constructed by routine methods.Here,however,we have constructed a high resolution catalog using a machine learning detector and waveform cross-correlation.Despite limited data,this new approach has detected one-third more earthquakes and improves the magnitude completeness of the catalog,illuminating the comprehensive spatial-temporal migration of the emerging seismicity in the target area.One of the clusters clearly delineates a potential unmapped fault trace that may have led to the Mw 5.2 in September 2019,by far the largest earthquake recorded in the region.The migration of the seismicity also demonstrates a pore-pressure diffusion front,suggesting additional constraints on the inducing mechanism of the region.The patterns of the highly clustered seismicity reconcile the causal link between the emerging seismicity and the activity of hydraulic fracturing in the region,facilitating continued investigation of the mechanisms of seismic induction and their associated risks.展开更多
Reservoir-induced earthquakes related with the construction of the Three Gorges Project have attracted great concerns of the public. Since the first water impoundment on May 25, 2003, a number of earthquakes have occu...Reservoir-induced earthquakes related with the construction of the Three Gorges Project have attracted great concerns of the public. Since the first water impoundment on May 25, 2003, a number of earthquakes have occurred during the water storage stages, in which the largest was the Badong M5.1 earthquake on December 16, 2013. In this paper, the relationships between seismic activities, b value, seismic parameters, and reservoir water level fluctuations are studied. In addition, based on the digital seismic waveform data obtained since 2000, the focal depth changes and focal mechanism characteristics before and after the water impoundment are studied as well. These provide us important information to understand the earthquake mechanisms. The results show that these earthquakes are typical reservoir-induced earthquakes, which are closely related to water infiltration, pore pressure, and water level fluctuations.The majority of the micro and small earthquakes are caused by karst collapse, mine collapse, bank reformation, superficial unloading, and so on. The larger earthquakes are related to the fault structures to some extent. Due to the persistent effects of water impoundment on the seismic and geological environments around the reservoir and water infiltration into the rocks, the influences on the crustal deformation field, gravity field, seepage field, and fault medium-softening action may vary gradually from a higher strength to a weaker one. Therefore, it is possible that small earthquakes and few medium earthquakes(M≤5.5) will occur in the reservoir area in the future.展开更多
基金supported by the NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme sponsored by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Grant Nos. N_CUHK418/15, N_CUHK430/16)CUHK-University of Manchester Research Fund (Grant No. 4930227)+4 种基金United States National Science Foundation (Grant No. OCE-1357433)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Grant No. STPGP 494141-16)Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant Nos. KAKENHI 2624004, 26280006)National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41474033)the Summer School Program of Peking University
文摘It has long been known that human activities such as waste fluid disposal and reservoir impoundment may cause earthquakes. Recently, anthropogenic activities to tackle the increasing energy demand and to address climate change issues are also reported to induce earthquakes. These activities have a common attribute in that fluids are injected and extracted underground and induce spatiotemporal changes of pore pressure and stress, which may cause slip on faults. Induced earthquakes not only pose significant impacts on seismic hazard assessment and preparation, but also raise the question to the society as how to balance the economic needs of resources development and the public's concerns about potential environmental impacts. Here we review the observations of fluid-injection/extraction induced earthquakes, ground deformation associated with these activities, and their physical mechanisms. Furthermore, we discuss the influences of induced earthquakes on seismic hazard models, regulatory policies on these anthropogenic activities, and current development of academic, industrial and government initiatives and collaborations in order to understand this intriguing phenomenon and address associated challenges.
基金supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(2018YFC1504501)the Hong Kong Research Grants Council(No.14303721 and N_CUHK430/16)the Faculty of Science,CUHK。
文摘Anthropogenic induced seismicity has been widely reported and investigated in many regions,including the shale gas fields in the Sichuan basin,where the frequency of earthquakes has increased substantially since the commencement of fracking in late 2014.However,the details of how earthquakes are induced remain poorly understood,partly due to lack of high-resolution spatial-temporal data documenting the evolution of such seismic events.Most previous studies have been based on a diffusive earthquake catalog constructed by routine methods.Here,however,we have constructed a high resolution catalog using a machine learning detector and waveform cross-correlation.Despite limited data,this new approach has detected one-third more earthquakes and improves the magnitude completeness of the catalog,illuminating the comprehensive spatial-temporal migration of the emerging seismicity in the target area.One of the clusters clearly delineates a potential unmapped fault trace that may have led to the Mw 5.2 in September 2019,by far the largest earthquake recorded in the region.The migration of the seismicity also demonstrates a pore-pressure diffusion front,suggesting additional constraints on the inducing mechanism of the region.The patterns of the highly clustered seismicity reconcile the causal link between the emerging seismicity and the activity of hydraulic fracturing in the region,facilitating continued investigation of the mechanisms of seismic induction and their associated risks.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41572354)the Key Foundation of the Institute of Seismology (IS201616254)
文摘Reservoir-induced earthquakes related with the construction of the Three Gorges Project have attracted great concerns of the public. Since the first water impoundment on May 25, 2003, a number of earthquakes have occurred during the water storage stages, in which the largest was the Badong M5.1 earthquake on December 16, 2013. In this paper, the relationships between seismic activities, b value, seismic parameters, and reservoir water level fluctuations are studied. In addition, based on the digital seismic waveform data obtained since 2000, the focal depth changes and focal mechanism characteristics before and after the water impoundment are studied as well. These provide us important information to understand the earthquake mechanisms. The results show that these earthquakes are typical reservoir-induced earthquakes, which are closely related to water infiltration, pore pressure, and water level fluctuations.The majority of the micro and small earthquakes are caused by karst collapse, mine collapse, bank reformation, superficial unloading, and so on. The larger earthquakes are related to the fault structures to some extent. Due to the persistent effects of water impoundment on the seismic and geological environments around the reservoir and water infiltration into the rocks, the influences on the crustal deformation field, gravity field, seepage field, and fault medium-softening action may vary gradually from a higher strength to a weaker one. Therefore, it is possible that small earthquakes and few medium earthquakes(M≤5.5) will occur in the reservoir area in the future.
