Induced Seismicity

Oil and gas production and other activities produce wastewater, which is sometimes disposed of deep underground. One unintended consequence of this wastewater injection is induced seismicity. While most earthquakes are naturally-occurring geologic phenomena, seismicity can be triggered by injection of fluids into the subsurface, increasing the pore pressure in the rock that effectively reduces the natural friction on a fault. These earthquakes only occur near some wastewater injection sites.

Induced Seismicity and the Natural Environment

What are the characteristics of induced earthquakes? How do fluid transport and rock rupture processes couple to create these events?

We are using seismic monitoring, inSAR and coupled hydromechanical modeling to investigate these questions.

Induced Seismicity and the Built Environment

How vulnerable are structures to induced earthquakes? What is the hazard and risk posed by these earthquakes?

We are using nonlinear simulations of structural response to develop new fragility models to assess risks to the built environment due to induced seismicity. We are also studying hazard models that incorporate induced seismicity.

Induced Seismicity and the Human Environment

How is induced seismicity reflected in communities’ risk perceptions, knowledge sharing, and stresses?

We are doing interviews and conducting surveys to understand these factors, as well as communities' perceived benefits of oil and gas development. We are also investigating regulatory alternatives for managing risks in the context of community, industry and regulatory constraints

Colorado Collaboratory for Induced Seismicity

We are an interdisciplinary team studying the causes, mechanisms, and impacts of induced seismicity, especially in Oklahoma and Colorado.

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Our project aims to probe the mechanisms by which deep wastewater injection wells induce earthquakes, the potential for these earthquakes to cause damage to the built environment, and the social and economic impact of induced earthquakes, expanding our knowledge of the complex interactions of the natural, built and human environments in the generation and management of induced seismicity.

This project is supported by the National Science Foundation, through the HazardsSEES program.

Announcements:

Induced Seismicity from Oil and Gas Wastewater Injection Dataset This new dataset on LawAtlas.org identifies and displays key features of Class II Underground Injection Control (UIC) well law related to induced seismicity from seven states and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in effect through August 16, 2019.

On August 26, 2019, The Colorado Collaboratory for Induced Seismicity is hosting its final advisory board meeting. We will share posters from the event after that date.

On April 17, 2019, Bridger Baird, supported by HazardsSEES, defended his MS Thesis on topic "Quantifying the Onset of Damage for Light-Frame Wood Buildings in Induced Earthquakes". His Thesis advisor is Dr. Abbie Liel.

On April 12, 2019, Dr. Anne Sheehan and graduate students Melody Zhang, Jack Bell, and Tom Clifford traveled to the IRIS PASSCAL seismic instrument center at New Mexico Tech to receive training on seismic instrumentation and seismometer deployment. On the return from New Mexico the group installed a temporary seismometer near Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. Photo: Melody Zhang, Jack Bell, Anne Sheehan, and Tom Clifford deploying portable seismometer near Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado.

SandDunes

New Publications:

Preliminary Magnitude and Distance Damage Thresholds for Light-Frame Wood Buildings in Induced Earthquakes - Bridger W. Baird, Abbie B. Liel, and Robert E. Chase, 13th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, ICASP13, Seoul, South Korea, May 2019.

Seismic Loss and Damage in Light-frame Wood Buildings from Sequences of Induced Earthquakes - Robert E. Chase, Abbie B. Liel, Nicolas Luco, and Bridger W. Baird, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, In Press, 2019.

Hazard Implications of the 2016 Mw 5.0 Cushing, OK Earthquake from a Joint Analysis of Damage and InSAR Data - Magali Barba-Sevilla, Bridger W. Baird, Abbie B. Liel, Kristy F. Tiampo, Remote Sensing, 2018.

Damage Accumulation in a Two-Story Wood Frame Building in Sequences of Induced Earthquakes - Robert E. Chase, Abbie B. Liel, Nicolas Luco, 11th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Los Angeles, California, USA, June 2018.

Evaluating the Effectivness of Induced Seismicity Mitigation: Numerical modeling of Wastewater Injection near Greeley, Colorado - Megan R. M. Brown, Shemin Ge, Anne F. Sheehan, Jenny S. Nakai, JGR Solid Earth, 2017.

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