scholarly journals Formation of damage zone and seismic velocity variations during hydraulic stimulation: numerical modelling and field observations

2013 ◽  
Vol 195 (2) ◽  
pp. 1023-1033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eyal Shalev ◽  
Marco Calò ◽  
Vladimir Lyakhovsky
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 2684
Author(s):  
Eldert Fokker ◽  
Elmer Ruigrok ◽  
Rhys Hawkins ◽  
Jeannot Trampert

Previous studies examining the relationship between the groundwater table and seismic velocities have been guided by empirical relationships only. Here, we develop a physics-based model relating fluctuations in groundwater table and pore pressure with seismic velocity variations through changes in effective stress. This model justifies the use of seismic velocity variations for monitoring of the pore pressure. Using a subset of the Groningen seismic network, near-surface velocity changes are estimated over a four-year period, using passive image interferometry. The same velocity changes are predicted by applying the newly derived theory to pressure-head recordings. It is demonstrated that the theory provides a close match of the observed seismic velocity changes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Lindner ◽  
Joachim Wassermann

<p>Permafrost thawing affects mountain slope stability and can trigger hazardous rock falls. As rising temperatures promote permafrost thawing, spatio-temporal monitoring of long-term and seasonal variations in the perennially frozen rock is therefore crucial in regions with high hazard potential. With various infrastructure in the summit area and population in the close vicinity, Mt. Zugspitze in the German/Austrian Alps is such a site and permafrost has been monitored with temperature logging in boreholes and lapse-time electrical resistivity tomography. Yet, these methods are expensive and laborious, and are limited in their spatial and/or temporal resolution.</p><p>Here, we analyze continuous seismic data from a single station deployed at an altitude of 2700 m a.s.l. in a research station, which is separated by roughly 250 m from the permafrost affected ridge of Mt. Zugspitze. Data are available since 2006 (with some gaps) and reveal high-frequency (>1 Hz) anthropogenic noise likely generated by the cable car stations at the summit. We calculate single-station cross-correlations between the different sensor components and investigate temporal coda wave changes by applying the recently introduced wavelet-based cross-spectrum method. This approach provides time series of the travel time relative to the reference stack as a function of frequency and lag time in the correlation functions. In the frequency and lag range of 1-10 Hz and 0.5-5 s respectively, we find various parts in the coda that show clear annual variations and an increasing trend in travel time over the past 15 years of consideration. Converting the travel time variations to seismic velocity variations (assuming homogeneous velocity changes affecting the whole mountain) results in seasonal velocity changes of up to a few percent and on the order of 0.1% decrease per year. Yet, estimated velocity variations do not scale linearly with lag time, which indicates that the medium changes are localized rather than uniform and that the absolute numbers need to be taken with caution. The annual velocity variations are anti-correlated with the temperature record from the summit but delayed by roughly one month.</p><p>The phasing of the annual seismic velocity change (relative to the temperature record) is in agreement with a previous study employing lapse-time electrical resistivity tomography. Furthermore, the decreasing trend in seismic velocity happens concurrently with an increasing trend in temperature. The results therefore suggest that the velocity changes are related to seasonal thaw and refreeze and permafrost degradation and thus highlight the potential of seismology for permafrost monitoring. By adding additional receivers and/or a fiber-optic cable for distributed acoustic sensing, hence increasing the spatial resolution, the presented method holds promise for lapse-time imaging of permafrost bodies with high spatio-temporal resolution from passive measurements.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 202 (1) ◽  
pp. 604-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaia Soldati ◽  
Lucia Zaccarelli ◽  
Licia Faenza ◽  
Alberto Michelini

2020 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashton F. Flinders ◽  
Corentin Caudron ◽  
Ingrid A. Johanson ◽  
Taka’aki Taira ◽  
Brian Shiro ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 224 (1) ◽  
pp. 626-636
Author(s):  
René Steinmann ◽  
Céline Hadziioannou ◽  
Eric Larose

SUMMARY About a decade ago, noise-based monitoring became a key tool in seismology. One of the tools is passive image interferometry (PII), which uses noise correlation functions (NCF) to retrieve seismic velocity variations. Most studies apply PII to vertical components recording oceanic low-frequent ambient noise ( < 1 Hz). In this work, PII is applied to high-frequent urban ambient noise ( > 1 Hz) on three three-component sensors. With environmental sensors inside the subsurface and in the air, we are able to connect observed velocity variations with environmental parameters. Temperatures below 0 °C correlate well with strong shear wave velocity increases. The temperature sensors inside the ground suggest that a frozen layer of less than 5 cm thickness causes apparent velocity increases above 2  % , depending on the channel pair. The observations indicate that the different velocity variation retrieved from the different channel pairs are due to different surface wave responses inherent in the channel pairs. With dispersion curve modelling in a 1-D medium we can verify that surfaces waves of several tens of metres wavelength experience a velocity increase of several percent due to a centimetres thick frozen layer. Moreover, the model verifies that Love waves show larger velocity increases than Rayleigh waves. The findings of this study provide new insights for monitoring with PII. A few days with temperature below 0 °C can already mask other potential targets (e.g. faults or storage sites). Here, we suggest to use vertical components, which is less sensitive to the frozen layer at the surface. If the target is the seasonal freezing, like in permafrost studies, we suggest to use three-component sensors in order to retrieve the Love wave response. This opens the possibility to study other small-scale processes at the shallow subsurface with surface wave responses.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (21) ◽  
pp. 9261-9269 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Olivier ◽  
F. Brenguier ◽  
M. Campillo ◽  
P. Roux ◽  
N. M. Shapiro ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinoud Sleeman

<p><span><span>The hazardous stratovolcanoes in the Lesser Antilles island arc are monitored with sparse seismic networks. The application of ambient noise interferometry to monitor seismic velocity variations (dv/v) on data from such a sparse instrumented volcanic environment often is a challenge. For the purpose of monitoring it is important a) to analyse the applicability of, and differences between, cross- and single-station cross-correlations, b) to estimate the base level of seismic velocity variations during quiet times and c) to understand the characteristics. Within the EUROVOLC instrument “Transnational Access (TA)” a proposal called VANIC was supported to a) use and evaluate different types of ambient noise cross correlations (single stations vs. multiple stations; auto, cross and cross-component correlations) to be applied on seismic recordings from the Guadeloupe seismic network on La Soufriere, b) compare the results with dv/v base level estimates from the sparse Netherlands Caribbean network on The Quill and Mt. Scenery and c) start collaboration between OVSG and KNMI on both monitoring and research levels with a focus on volcano seismology. This presentation will focus is on the results obtained during the TA visit to OVGS.</span></span></p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Rehde ◽  
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Heinz Konietzky

<p>Underneath the small town of Freiberg, Saxony, stretches the ore mine complex 'Reiche Zeche'. The underground laboratory (URL) inside the mine was inaugurated in 1919 and is an internationally acknowledged institution for experimental work of variable scales and subjects. Our work is part of the Stimtec project, which aims on improving planning and conducting hydraulic stimulation in anisotropic, crystalline rocks. The project comprises numerical modelling and field work inside the URL. Prior to the numerical analysis, we implemented a tool to perform a slip tendency analysis of faults that were mapped along the tunnel walls at the project site. It allows to assess the slip tendency of arbitrarily oriented faults and stress fields. The tool is used for preselection of stimulation intervals, enabling identification of faults which are likely to be reactivated by hydraulic stimulation. <br>We perform the stress field modelling using a multiscale numerical model approach. Therefore, we set up three different sized models deriving from a large scale 3D geomodel. The geomodel contains the topography, drifts and 47 fault structures taken from mine maps. The project site and measurement points are positioned in the center of the model. From the large scale geomodel, we developed a simplified numerical model geometry with 12 major faults, disregarding the galleries. We use the distinct element code 3DEC for discontinuous numerical modelling of the stress field. This allows to take into account discrete displacements along the faults. Far field stress is taken from previous investigations and literature as boundary and initial conditions. The resulting stress  field provides the stress tensors for calculating the corresponding forces for each gridpoint at the model boundaries of the small scale model. The small scale numerical model is smaller by a factor of 10, including two major fault segments, the galleries and mapped local faults. Hydraulic fracturing stress measurements taken during the field tests indicate that the stress field is strongly distorted in the vicinity of the tunnels and excavations along the ore veins. Hence, we developed a third model approach, a 2.5D slice model, to investigate the influence of the assumed excavation damage zones.<br>With this work, we provide an approach to predict the stress field inside the complex, anisotropic rock volume. Within the framework of the Stimtec project, we developed a workflow for planning hydraulic stimulation tests and 3D geological models for a diverse set of further appliations in the URL 'Reiche Zeche'.</p>


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