scholarly journals Statistical evidence on the effect of production changes on induced seismicity

2017 ◽  
Vol 96 (5) ◽  
pp. s27-s38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danijela Sijacic ◽  
Frank Pijpers ◽  
Manuel Nepveu ◽  
Karin van Thienen-Visser
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Induced Seismicity ◽  
Seismic Events ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Total Production ◽  
Induced Earthquakes ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
The North ◽  
The Government ◽  
Reduced Rate

AbstractDepletion of the Groningen gas field has induced earthquakes, although the north of the Netherlands is a tectonically inactive region. Increased seismic activity raised public concern which led the government to initiate a number of studies with the aim of understanding the cause(s) of the earthquakes. If the relationship between production and seismicity were understood then production could be optimized in such a way that the risk of induced seismicity would be minimal. The main question remains how production is correlated with induced seismicity. The Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands decided to reduce production starting from 17 January 2014, specifically in the centre of the gas field as it has the highest rates of seismicity, the largest-magnitude events and the highest compaction values of the field.A reduction in production could possibly lead to a reduced rate of compaction. Additionally a reduction of production rate could lead to a reduced stress rate increase on the existing faults and consequently fewer seismic events per year. One might envisage a ‘bonus effect’ in the events reduction in the sense that the total number of events will be less, with the same total production smeared out over a longer period. This is as yet unclear.In this paper we apply different statistical methods to look for evidence supporting or disproving a decrease in the number of seismic events due to production reduction.

scholarly journals Statistical physics models for aftershocks and induced seismicity

2018 ◽  
Vol 377 (2136) ◽  
pp. 20170397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Luginbuhl ◽  
John B. Rundle ◽  
Donald L. Turcotte
Keyword(s):  
Induced Seismicity ◽  
Statistical Physics ◽  
Aftershock Sequence ◽  
Induced Earthquakes ◽  
Aftershock Activity ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Natural Time ◽  
Parkfield Earthquake ◽  
Groningen Gas Field

A standard approach to quantifying the seismic hazard is the relative intensity (RI) method. It is assumed that the rate of seismicity is constant in time and the rate of occurrence of small earthquakes is extrapolated to large earthquakes using Gutenberg–Richter scaling. We introduce nowcasting to extend RI forecasting to time-dependent seismicity, for example, during an aftershock sequence. Nowcasting uses ‘natural time’; in seismicity natural time is the event count of small earthquakes. The event count for small earthquakes is extrapolated to larger earthquakes using Gutenberg–Richter scaling. We first review the concepts of natural time and nowcasting and then illustrate seismic nowcasting with three examples. We first consider the aftershock sequence of the 2004 Parkfield earthquake on the San Andreas fault in California. Some earthquakes have higher rates of aftershock activity than other earthquakes of the same magnitude. Our approach allows the determination of the rate in real time during the aftershock sequence. We also consider two examples of induced earthquakes. Large injections of waste water from petroleum extraction have generated high rates of induced seismicity in Oklahoma. The extraction of natural gas from the Groningen gas field in The Netherlands has also generated very damaging earthquakes. In order to reduce the seismic activity, rates of injection and withdrawal have been reduced in these two cases. We show how nowcasting can be used to assess the success of these efforts. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Statistical physics of fracture and earthquakes’.

Melting Ice Rivers

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Colopy
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Mount Everest ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government

From a remote outpost of global warming, a summons crackles over a two-way radio several times a week: . . . Kathmandu, Tsho Rolpa! Babar Mahal, Tsho Rolpa! Kathmandu, Tsho Rolpa! Babar Mahal, Tsho Rolpa! . . . In a little brick building on the lip of a frigid gray lake fifteen thousand feet above sea level, Ram Bahadur Khadka tries to rouse someone at Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology in the Babar Mahal district of Kathmandu far below. When he finally succeeds and a voice crackles back to him, he reads off a series of measurements: lake levels, amounts of precipitation. A father and a farmer, Ram Bahadur is up here at this frigid outpost because the world is getting warmer. He and two colleagues rotate duty; usually two of them live here at any given time, in unkempt bachelor quarters near the roof of the world. Mount Everest is three valleys to the east, only about twenty miles as the crow flies. The Tibetan plateau is just over the mountains to the north. The men stay for four months at a stretch before walking down several days to reach a road and board a bus to go home and visit their families. For the past six years each has received five thousand rupees per month from the government—about $70—for his labors. The cold, murky lake some fifty yards away from the post used to be solid ice. Called Tsho Rolpa, it’s at the bottom of the Trakarding Glacier on the border between Tibet and Nepal. The Trakarding has been receding since at least 1960, leaving the lake at its foot. It’s retreating about 200 feet each year. Tsho Rolpa was once just a pond atop the glacier. Now it’s half a kilometer wide and three and a half kilometers long; upward of a hundred million cubic meters of icy water are trapped behind a heap of rock the glacier deposited as it flowed down and then retreated. The Netherlands helped Nepal carve out a trench through that heap of rock to allow some of the lake’s water to drain into the Rolwaling River.

scholarly journals Aandacht voor zingeving : Context en praktijk van geestelijke verzorging in het aardbevingsgebied van Groningen

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52
Author(s):  
Anieljah de Kraker-Zijlstra ◽  
Hanneke Muthert ◽  
Hetty Zock ◽  
Martin Walton
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Psychosocial Care ◽  
Induced Earthquakes ◽  
Social Domain ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Needs ◽  
Earthquake Area

Abstract Attention for Meaning-Making Processes: Context and Practice of Spiritual Care in the Earthquake Area of GroningenIn the North of the Netherlands spiritual caregivers have been employed to respond to the social and personal needs resulting from human induced earthquakes. In the Netherlands knowledge on spiritual care in times of disasters is limited. Central to the present study are two questions: How is spiritual care being put into practice in Groningen? And how do the spiritual caregivers cooperate with others in psychosocial care and in the social domain? This article describes the context, the reasons spiritual care came to be provided and the primary activities of the spiritual caregivers during their initial year of practice.

scholarly journals Die invloed van die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog (1899-1902) op die Teologiese Skool Burgersdorp

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Krüger
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Theological Seminary ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
The North ◽  
The Government

The influence of the Second War of Independence (1899-1902) on the Theological Seminary of Burgersdorp In this article the reasons for the War are pinpointed as England’s imperialism and the underlying motif of getting hold of the riches and gold of the ZAR. At the outbreak of the War the students and lecturers of the Burgersdorp Theological Seminary, as most Boers in the Cape Colony, had to make a decisive choice: loyalty to the Government of the Cape Colony or to their fellow kinsmen in the North (and thus siding with the latter). Varying facets of the war-torn situation are touched upon in this article: the lecturers were for example accused of treason but acquitted. The outcome of the 30 students’ situation, however, differed. Those students origally from the northern Republics returned home to join their commandos. Some of these students were taken prisoners of war. Most of the Cape students showed their solidarity with their northern compatriots by joining the Ambulance Corps. Three students and two former students eventually died (one was the son of Prof. Lion Cachet). In honour of these students a monument was erected in 1906. Only one student and three former students were rebels, as far as is presently known. At a later stage three students were able to continue their studies in the Netherlands. Two of these, J.D. du Toit and F. Postma, later returned to South Africa and committed their lives to the Theological Seminary at Potchefstroom and the Potchefstroom University for CHE.

Geomechanics response and induced seismicity during gas field depletion in the Netherlands

Geothermics ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 206-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.D. Van Wees ◽  
L. Buijze ◽  
K. Van Thienen-Visser ◽  
M. Nepveu ◽  
B.B.T. Wassing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Induced Seismicity ◽  
Gas Field
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