Understanding rate effects in injection-induced earthquakes
Understanding the physical mechanisms that underpin the link between fluid injection and seismicity is essential in efforts to mitigate the seismic risk associated with subsurface technologies. To that end, here we develop a poroelastic model of earthquake nucleation based on rate-and-state friction...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
|
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128373 |
| _version_ | 1811090446875623424 |
|---|---|
| author | Alghannam, Maryam Juanes, Ruben |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Alghannam, Maryam Juanes, Ruben |
| author_sort | Alghannam, Maryam |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Understanding the physical mechanisms that underpin the link between fluid injection and seismicity is essential in efforts to mitigate the seismic risk associated with subsurface technologies. To that end, here we develop a poroelastic model of earthquake nucleation based on rate-and-state friction in the manner of spring–sliders, and analyze conditions for the emergence of stick-slip frictional instability—the mechanism for earthquakes—by carrying out a linear stability analysis and nonlinear simulations. We find that the likelihood of triggering earthquakes depends largely on the rate of increase in pore pressure rather than its magnitude. Consequently, fluid injection at constant rate acts in the direction of triggering seismic rupture at early times followed by aseismic creep at late times. Our model implies that, for the same cumulative volume of injected fluid, an abrupt high-rate injection protocol is likely to increase the seismic risk whereas a gradual step-up protocol is likely to decrease it. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:46:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/128373 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:46:18Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1283732022-10-01T22:20:51Z Understanding rate effects in injection-induced earthquakes Alghannam, Maryam Juanes, Ruben Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Understanding the physical mechanisms that underpin the link between fluid injection and seismicity is essential in efforts to mitigate the seismic risk associated with subsurface technologies. To that end, here we develop a poroelastic model of earthquake nucleation based on rate-and-state friction in the manner of spring–sliders, and analyze conditions for the emergence of stick-slip frictional instability—the mechanism for earthquakes—by carrying out a linear stability analysis and nonlinear simulations. We find that the likelihood of triggering earthquakes depends largely on the rate of increase in pore pressure rather than its magnitude. Consequently, fluid injection at constant rate acts in the direction of triggering seismic rupture at early times followed by aseismic creep at late times. Our model implies that, for the same cumulative volume of injected fluid, an abrupt high-rate injection protocol is likely to increase the seismic risk whereas a gradual step-up protocol is likely to decrease it. 2020-11-05T21:48:50Z 2020-11-05T21:48:50Z 2020-06 2019-09 2020-11-04T15:57:07Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-1723 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128373 Alghannam, Maryam and Ruben Juanes. "Understanding rate effects in injection-induced earthquakes." Nature Communications 11, 1 (June 2020): 3053. © 2020 The Author(s) en http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16860-y Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Springer Science and Business Media LLC Nature |
| spellingShingle | Alghannam, Maryam Juanes, Ruben Understanding rate effects in injection-induced earthquakes |
| title | Understanding rate effects in injection-induced earthquakes |
| title_full | Understanding rate effects in injection-induced earthquakes |
| title_fullStr | Understanding rate effects in injection-induced earthquakes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Understanding rate effects in injection-induced earthquakes |
| title_short | Understanding rate effects in injection-induced earthquakes |
| title_sort | understanding rate effects in injection induced earthquakes |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/128373 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alghannammaryam understandingrateeffectsininjectioninducedearthquakes AT juanesruben understandingrateeffectsininjectioninducedearthquakes |