Abstract. Recent seismicity in Alberta and British Columbia has been attributed to ongoing oil and gas development in the area, due to its temporal and spatial correlation. Prior to such development, the area was seismically quiescent. Here, we show evidence that latent seismicity may occur in areas where previous operations may have occurred, even during a shutdown in operations. The global pandemic of COVID-19 furnished the unique opportunity to study seismicity during a period of anthropogenic quiescence. A total of 389 events were detected within the Kiskatinaw area of British Columbia from April to August 2020, which encompasses a period with no hydraulic fracturing operations during a government imposed lockdown. Apart from a reduction in seismicity rate, the general characteristics of the observed seismicity were similar to the preceding time period of active operations. During the shutdown, observed event magnitudes fell between ML −1 and ML 1.2, but lacked temporal clustering that is often characteristic of hydraulic-fracturing induced sequences. Hypocenters occurred in a corridor orientated NW-SE, just as seismicity had done in previous years in the area, and locate at depths associated with the target Montney formation or shallower (
Technical Analysis of the Oil and Gas Development in Montney Formation in the Shadow Area, Canada
