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Causal mechanism of injection-induced earthquakes through the M(w) 5.5 Pohang earthquake case study

Causal mechanisms for fluid injection-induced earthquakes remain a challenge to identify. Past studies largely established spatiotemporal correlations. Here, we propose a multi-process causal mechanism for injection-induced earthquakes through a case study of the 2017 M(w) 5.5 induced earthquake nea...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yeo, I. W., Brown, M. R. M., Ge, S., Lee, K. K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7251101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32457321
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16408-0
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author Yeo, I. W.
Brown, M. R. M.
Ge, S.
Lee, K. K.
author_facet Yeo, I. W.
Brown, M. R. M.
Ge, S.
Lee, K. K.
author_sort Yeo, I. W.
collection PubMed
description Causal mechanisms for fluid injection-induced earthquakes remain a challenge to identify. Past studies largely established spatiotemporal correlations. Here, we propose a multi-process causal mechanism for injection-induced earthquakes through a case study of the 2017 M(w) 5.5 induced earthquake near Pohang Enhanced Geothermal System, Korea, where detailed hydraulic stimulation and on-site seismicity monitoring data provide an unprecedented opportunity. Pore pressure modeling reveals that pore pressure changes initiate seismicity on critically stressed faults and Coulomb static stress transfer modeling reveals that earthquake interactions promote continued seismicity, leading to larger events. On the basis of these results, we propose the following causal mechanism for induced seismicity: pore pressure increase and earthquake interactions lead to fault weakening and ultimately triggering larger earthquakes later in the process. We suggest that it is prudent that pore pressure change, initial seismicity locations, and Coulomb static stress transfer from seismicity earlier in the sequence are assessed in real-time.
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spelling pubmed-72511012020-06-04 Causal mechanism of injection-induced earthquakes through the M(w) 5.5 Pohang earthquake case study Yeo, I. W. Brown, M. R. M. Ge, S. Lee, K. K. Nat Commun Article Causal mechanisms for fluid injection-induced earthquakes remain a challenge to identify. Past studies largely established spatiotemporal correlations. Here, we propose a multi-process causal mechanism for injection-induced earthquakes through a case study of the 2017 M(w) 5.5 induced earthquake near Pohang Enhanced Geothermal System, Korea, where detailed hydraulic stimulation and on-site seismicity monitoring data provide an unprecedented opportunity. Pore pressure modeling reveals that pore pressure changes initiate seismicity on critically stressed faults and Coulomb static stress transfer modeling reveals that earthquake interactions promote continued seismicity, leading to larger events. On the basis of these results, we propose the following causal mechanism for induced seismicity: pore pressure increase and earthquake interactions lead to fault weakening and ultimately triggering larger earthquakes later in the process. We suggest that it is prudent that pore pressure change, initial seismicity locations, and Coulomb static stress transfer from seismicity earlier in the sequence are assessed in real-time. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-05-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7251101/ /pubmed/32457321 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16408-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Yeo, I. W.
Brown, M. R. M.
Ge, S.
Lee, K. K.
Causal mechanism of injection-induced earthquakes through the M(w) 5.5 Pohang earthquake case study
title Causal mechanism of injection-induced earthquakes through the M(w) 5.5 Pohang earthquake case study
title_full Causal mechanism of injection-induced earthquakes through the M(w) 5.5 Pohang earthquake case study
title_fullStr Causal mechanism of injection-induced earthquakes through the M(w) 5.5 Pohang earthquake case study
title_full_unstemmed Causal mechanism of injection-induced earthquakes through the M(w) 5.5 Pohang earthquake case study
title_short Causal mechanism of injection-induced earthquakes through the M(w) 5.5 Pohang earthquake case study
title_sort causal mechanism of injection-induced earthquakes through the m(w) 5.5 pohang earthquake case study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7251101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32457321
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16408-0
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