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Temporal Correlation Between Seismic Moment and Injection Volume for an Induced Earthquake Sequence in Central Oklahoma
Author(s) -
Chen Xiaowei,
Haffener Jackson,
Goebel Thomas H. W.,
Meng Xiaofeng,
Peng Zhigang,
Chang Jefferson C.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: solid earth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.983
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 2169-9356
pISSN - 2169-9313
DOI - 10.1002/2017jb014694
Subject(s) - induced seismicity , seismology , geology , magnitude (astronomy) , maximum magnitude , sequence (biology) , seismic moment , earthquake magnitude , fault (geology) , moment (physics) , pore water pressure , geotechnical engineering , scaling , mathematics , chemistry , geometry , physics , biochemistry , classical mechanics , astronomy
The rapidly increased earthquake rate in the central United States has been linked with wastewater injection. While the overall understanding appears clear at large scales, the interaction between injection and faulting at smaller scales within individual sequences is still not clear. For an earthquake sequence in central Oklahoma, we conduct finer‐scale analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution of seismicity and pore pressure modeling. The pore pressure modeling suggests that nearby wells show much stronger correlation with earthquake sequence evolution. Detailed temporal analysis found correlation between earthquake rate, seismic moment, and injection rates from wells in close proximity. However, the observed maximum magnitude ( M max ) is about 1 order of magnitude smaller than expected based on a theoretical relationship between M max and cumulative volume. This discrepancy may point toward additional parameters, such as fault size and stress, which influence M max . The lower M max is consistent with the truncated Gutenberg‐Richter distribution observed from matched filter detected catalog. Overall, the detailed observations suggest that it is possible to resolve relationships between individual disposal wells and induced earthquake sequences.