Using ground motion prediction equations to monitor variations in quality factor due to induced seismicity: a feasibility study

Acta Geophysica

article

Convertito, Vincenzo¹  De Matteis, Raffaella²  Esposito, Roberta³  Capuano, Paolo³ 

[1] Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia;Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie, Università Degli Studi del Sannio;Dipartimento di Fisica “E. R. Caianiello”, Università di Salerno

关键词: Induced seismicity;    Anelastic attenuation;    Ground motion predictive equations;   

DOI  :  10.1007/s11600-020-00441-0

学科分类：地球科学(综合)

来源: Polska Akademia Nauk * Instytut Geofizyki

【 摘 要 】

Sub-surface operations for energy production such as gas storage, fluid reinjection or hydraulic fracking may modify the physical properties of the rocks, in particular the seismic velocity and the anelastic attenuation. The aim of the present study is to investigate, through a synthetic test, the possibility of using empirical ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) to observe the variations in the reservoir. In the synthetic test, we reproduce the expected seismic activity (in terms of rate, focal mechanisms, stress drop and the b value of the Gutenberg-Richter) and the variation of medium properties in terms of the quality factor Q induced by a fluid injection experiment. In practice, peak-ground velocity data of the simulated earthquakes during the field operations are used to update the coefficients of a reference GMPE in order to test whether the coefficients are able to capture the medium properties variation. The results of the test show that the coefficients of the GMPE vary during the simulated field operations revealing their sensitivity to the variation of the anelastic attenuation. The proposed approach is suggested as a promising tool that, if confirmed by real data analysis, could be used for monitoring and interpreting induced seismicity in addition to more conventional techniques.

【 授权许可】

Unknown