Fault slip potential induced by fluid injection in the Matouying EGS field, Tangshan seismic region, North China

The Tangshan region is one of the most seismically active areas in the North China, and the 1976 M 7.8 earthquake occurred on July 28th near the Tangshan fault zone. The Matouying Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) field is located ~90 km away from Tangshan City. Since the late 2020, preliminary hydraulic stimulation tests have been conducted at depths of ~3965–4000 m. Fluid injection into geothermal reservoir facilitates heat exchanger system. However, fluid injection may also induce earthquakes. In anticipation of the EGS operation at the Matouying uplift, it is essential to assess how the fault slip potential of the nearby active and quiescent faults will change in the presence of fluid injection. In this study, we first characterize the ambient stress field in the Tangshan region by performing stress tensor inversions using 98 focal mechanism data (ML ≥ 2.5). Then, we estimate the principal stress magnitudes near the Matouying EGS field by analyzing in situ stress measurements at shallow depths (~600–1000 m). According to these data, we perform a quantitative risk assessment using the Mohr-Coulomb framework in order to evaluate how the main active faults might respond to hypothetical injected-related pore pressure increases due to the upcoming EGS production. Our results mainly show that most earthquakes in the Tangshan seismic region have occurred on the faults that have relatively high fault slip potential in the present ambient stress field. At well distances of less than 15 km, the probabilistic fault slip potential on most of the boundary faults increase with continuing fluid injection over time, especially on these faults with well distances of ~6–10 km. The probabilistic fault slip potential increases linearly with the fluid injection rate. However, the FSP values decrease exponentially with increased unit permeability. The case study of the Matouying EGS field has important implications for the deep geothermal exploitation in China, especially for Gonghe EGS (in Qinghai province) and Xiong’an New Area (in Hebei province) geothermal reservoirs that are close to the Quaternary active faults. Ongoing injection operations in the regions should be conducted with these understandings in mind.

Dynamic rupture initiation and propagation in a fluid-injection laboratory setup with diagnostics across multiple temporal scales

Fluids are known to trigger a broad range of slip events, from slow, creeping transients to dynamic earthquake ruptures. Yet, the detailed mechanics underlying these processes and the conditions leading to different rupture behaviors are not well understood. Here, we use a laboratory earthquake setup, capable of injecting pressurized fluids, to compare the rupture behavior for different rates of fluid injection, slow (megapascals per hour) versus fast (megapascals per second). We find that for the fast injection rates, dynamic ruptures are triggered at lower pressure levels and over spatial scales much smaller than the quasistatic theoretical estimates of nucleation sizes, suggesting that such fast injection rates constitute dynamic loading. In contrast, the relatively slow injection rates result in gradual nucleation processes, with the fluid spreading along the interface and causing stress changes consistent with gradually accelerating slow slip. The resulting dynamic ruptures propagating over wetted interfaces exhibit dynamic stress drops almost twice as large as those over the dry interfaces. These results suggest the need to take into account the rate of the pore-pressure increase when considering nucleation processes and motivate further investigation on how friction properties depend on the presence of fluids.

Spatial and temporal multiplet analysis for identification of dominant fluid migration path at The Geysers geothermal field, California

Multiplet analysis is based on the identification of seismic events with very similar waveforms which are used then to enhance seismological analysis e.g. by precise relocation of sources. In underground fluid injection conditions, it is a tool frequently used for imaging of subsurface fracture system. We identify over 150 repeatedly activated seismic sources within seismicity cluster induced by fluid injection in NW part of The Geysers geothermal field (California). Majority of multiple events (ME) occur along N–S oriented planar structure which we interpret as a fault plane. Remaining ME are distributed along structures interpreted as fractures, forming together a system of interconnected cracks enabling fluid migration. Temporal analysis reveals that during periods of relatively low fluid injection the proportion of ME to non-multiple events is higher than during periods of high injection. Moreover, ME which occur within the fault differ in activity rate and source properties from ME designating the fractures and non-multiple events. In this study we utilize observed differences between ME occurring within various structures and non-multiple events to describe hydraulic conditions within the reservoir. We show that spatial and temporal analysis of multiplets can be used for identification and characterization of dominant fluid migration paths.

Analysis of the 2016–2018 fluid-injection induced seismicity in the High Agri Valley (Southern Italy) from improved detections using template matching

Improving the capability of seismic network to detect weak seismic events is one of the timeless challenges in seismology: the greater is the number of detected and locatable seismic events, the greater insights on the mechanisms responsible for seismic activation may be gained. Here we implement and apply a single-station template matching algorithm to detect events belonging to the fluid-injection induced seismicity cluster located in the High Agri Valley, Southern Italy, using the continuous seismic data stream of the closest station of the INSIEME network. To take into account the diversity of waveforms, albeit belonging to the same seismic cluster, eight different master templates were adopted. Afterwards, using all the stations of the network, we provide a seismic catalogue consisting of 196 located earthquakes, in the magnitude range − 1.2 ≤ Ml ≤ 1.2, with a completeness magnitude Mc = − 0.5 ± 0.1. This rich seismic catalogue allows us to describe the damage zone of a SW dipping fault, characterized by a variety of fractures critically stressed in the dip range between ~ 45° and ~ 75°. The time-evolution of seismicity clearly shows seismic swarm distribution characteristics with many events of similar magnitude, and the seismicity well correlates with injection operational parameters (i.e. injected volumes and injection pressures).

Hydro-Thermal Modeling for Geothermal Energy Extraction from Soultz-Sous-forêts, France

The deep geothermal industrial project at Soultz-sous-Forêts is located in the Upper Rhine Graben, France. As part of the MEET project, this study aims to evaluate the possibility of extracting higher amounts of energy from the existing industrial infrastructure. To achieve this objective, the effect of reinjecting fluid at lower temperature than the current fluid injection temperature of 70 ℃ was modelled and the drop in the production wellhead temperature for 100 years of operation was quantified. Two injection-production rate scenarios were considered and compared for their effect on overall production wellhead temperature. For each scenario, reinjection temperatures of 40 ℃, 50 ℃ and 60 ℃ were chosen and compared with the 70 ℃ injection case. For the lower production rate scenario, the results show that the production wellhead temperature is approximately 1-1.5 ℃ higher than for the higher production rate scenario after 100 years of operation. In conclusion, no significant thermal breakthrough has been observed with the applied flow rates and lowered injection temperatures even after 100 years of operation.