A multi-physics database of injection-induced seismicity in geo-energy projects

Abstract

Geo-energies play a critical role in the energy transition necessary to achieving climate goals. ‎Exploiting these resources commonly involves fluid injection/extraction into/from the subsurface, ‎which has frequently induced seismicity, sometimes large enough to be felt by the local population ‎and even cause damage to the infrastructure. Extensive efforts have been dedicated in recent ‎years to process understanding, forecasting and management of induced seismicity. These ‎investigations require data from different disciplines, including seismology, geology, petrophysics ‎and geomechanics although such multi-disciplinary data are hardly gathered together. This ‎motivated us to develop a publicly available, physics-based database of injection-induced ‎seismicity (Kivi et al., 2022). The database is presented in a flat-file format and is accompanied by ‎a data-description paper (Kivi et al., 2023), making it readily accessible and understandable to all ‎end users. It currently contains information for 158 induced earthquakes caused by geoenergy ‎applications worldwide. Collected data covers general site information, host rock properties, in situ ‎geologic and tectonic conditions, fault characteristics, operational field parameters and recorded ‎seismic activities. The database contributes to advancing research on induced seismicity at ‎different fronts. In particular, it provides a unique opportunity for exploring meaningful links ‎between operational parameters and induced seismicity, leading to the development of scaling ‎relationships for constraining the maximum possible earthquake magnitudes. ‎ References Kivi, I. R., Boyet, A., Wu, H., Walter, L., Hanson-Hedgecock, S., Parisio, F., Vilarrasa, V. (2022). ‎‎[Dataset] Global physics-based database of injection-induced seismicity. ‎https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/14813 ‎ Kivi, I. R., Boyet, A., Wu, H., Walter, L., Hanson-Hedgecock, S., Parisio, F., Vilarrasa, V. (2023). ‎Global physics-based database of injection-induced seismicity. Earth System Science Data ‎Discussions, 15: 3163–3182. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3163-2023‎