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Role of Fluid Injection on Earthquake Size in Dynamic Rupture Simulations on Rough Faults
Author(s) -
Maurer Jeremy,
Dunham Eric M.,
Segall Paul
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2020gl088377
Subject(s) - pore water pressure , perturbation (astronomy) , geology , induced seismicity , nucleation , fluid pressure , microscale chemistry , mechanics , surface finish , shear stress , stress (linguistics) , geotechnical engineering , shear (geology) , seismology , materials science , petrology , physics , composite material , thermodynamics , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics education , mathematics , quantum mechanics
Abstract An outstanding question for induced seismicity is whether the volume of injected fluid and/or the spatial extent of the resulting pore pressure and stress perturbations limit rupture size. We simulate ruptures with and without injection‐induced pore pressure perturbations, using 2‐D dynamic rupture simulations on rough faults. Ruptures are not necessarily limited by pressure perturbations when (1) background shear stress is above a critical value, or (2) pore pressure is high. Both conditions depend on fault roughness. Stress heterogeneity from fault roughness primarily determines where ruptures stop; pore pressure has a secondary effect. Ruptures may be limited by fluid volume or pressure perturbation extent when background stress and fault roughness are low, and the maximum pore pressure perturbation is less than 10% of the background effective normal stress. Future work should combine our methodology with simulation of the loading, injection, and nucleation phases to improve understanding of injection‐induced ruptures.