Earthquake Growth Inhibited at Higher Coulomb Stress Change Rate at Groningen

Y. Tamama; M. Acosta; S. J. Bourne; J. P. Avouac

doi:10.1029/2024GL110139

Earthquake Growth Inhibited at Higher Coulomb Stress Change Rate at Groningen

Y. Tamama
, M. Acosta
, S. J. Bourne
, J. P. Avouac

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

70 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Gas extraction from the Groningen gas field resulted in significant induced seismicity. We analyze the magnitude-frequency distribution of these earthquakes in space, time and in view of stress changes calculated based on gas production and reservoir properties. Previous studies suggested variations related to reservoir geometry and stress. While we confirm the spatial variations, we do not detect a clear sensitivity of b-value to Coulomb stress changes. However, we find that b-value correlates positively with the rate of Coulomb stress changes. This correlation is statistically significant and robust to uncertainties related to stress change calculation. This study thus points to a possible influence of stress change rate on the probability of the magnitude of induced earthquakes.

Original language	English
Article number	e2024GL110139
Pages (from-to)	1-10
Number of pages	10
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	51
Issue number	20
Early online date	15 Oct 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL110139
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 28 Oct 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024. The Author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data and codes necessary for this paper's analyses are available online at Tamama et al. (2024).

Funding

We thank Krittanon (Pond) Sirorattanakul, Hojjat Kaveh, Linxuan Li, Kyungjae (KJ) Im, Nicholas van der Elst, Thomas Goebel, and Bernard Dost for their help and comments. This study was supported by the NSF/Industry-University Collaborative Research Center ’Geomechanics and Mitigation of Geohazards' (National Science Foundation award 1822214) and the Enhancement Project GMG-3 funded by NAM. Y.T. acknowledges funding from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (National Science Foundation Grant 2139433). M.A. acknowledges funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation through Grant P2ELP2_195127.

Funders	Funder number
National Science Foundation	GMG‐3, 1822214
National Science Foundation
2139433
P2ELP2_195127

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

b-value
induced seismicity
coulomb stress and stress rate

Access to Document

10.1029/2024GL110139

Earthquake Growth Inhibited - Final VersionFinal published version, 1.36 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Earthquake Growth Inhibited at Higher Coulomb Stress Change Rate at Groningen",

abstract = "Gas extraction from the Groningen gas field resulted in significant induced seismicity. We analyze the magnitude-frequency distribution of these earthquakes in space, time and in view of stress changes calculated based on gas production and reservoir properties. Previous studies suggested variations related to reservoir geometry and stress. While we confirm the spatial variations, we do not detect a clear sensitivity of b-value to Coulomb stress changes. However, we find that b-value correlates positively with the rate of Coulomb stress changes. This correlation is statistically significant and robust to uncertainties related to stress change calculation. This study thus points to a possible influence of stress change rate on the probability of the magnitude of induced earthquakes.",

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AU - Tamama, Y.

AU - Acosta, M.

AU - Bourne, S. J.

AU - Avouac, J. P.

PY - 2024/10/28

Y1 - 2024/10/28

N2 - Gas extraction from the Groningen gas field resulted in significant induced seismicity. We analyze the magnitude-frequency distribution of these earthquakes in space, time and in view of stress changes calculated based on gas production and reservoir properties. Previous studies suggested variations related to reservoir geometry and stress. While we confirm the spatial variations, we do not detect a clear sensitivity of b-value to Coulomb stress changes. However, we find that b-value correlates positively with the rate of Coulomb stress changes. This correlation is statistically significant and robust to uncertainties related to stress change calculation. This study thus points to a possible influence of stress change rate on the probability of the magnitude of induced earthquakes.

AB - Gas extraction from the Groningen gas field resulted in significant induced seismicity. We analyze the magnitude-frequency distribution of these earthquakes in space, time and in view of stress changes calculated based on gas production and reservoir properties. Previous studies suggested variations related to reservoir geometry and stress. While we confirm the spatial variations, we do not detect a clear sensitivity of b-value to Coulomb stress changes. However, we find that b-value correlates positively with the rate of Coulomb stress changes. This correlation is statistically significant and robust to uncertainties related to stress change calculation. This study thus points to a possible influence of stress change rate on the probability of the magnitude of induced earthquakes.

KW - b-value

KW - induced seismicity

KW - coulomb stress and stress rate

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JO - Geophysical Research Letters

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M1 - e2024GL110139

ER -

Earthquake Growth Inhibited at Higher Coulomb Stress Change Rate at Groningen

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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