Northern Israel was struck during July 2018 by a M L 4.4 earthquake followed by a seismic sequence that lasted about 30 days. This seismic sequence occurred in the center of a temporary seismic network deployed around the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret). The network was installed to investigate the regional kinematics of the Dead Sea Fault, which is a major transform fault running N-S for more than 1,000 km. The data allowed us to develop a local velocity model for the Sea of Galilee. We relocated more than 600 earthquakes and calculated 27 focal mechanisms pointing out a complex kinematic setting, possibly controlled by fluids at depth. The seismic sequence developed along a NNW-striking direction and it is bounded to the east by the N-striking Dead Sea fault. Hypocenter depths range between 6 and 13 km. Directions of the principal stress tensors suggest a transtentional deformation, in agreement with the overall kinematics of the region. We analyze and discuss our data set to investigate mechanisms that potentially triggered the observed seismic swarm, including exacerbated ground water pumping proposed by previous authors. We suggest that the seismic sequence is driven by the dissipation of the elastic load that accumulated in this region.

High-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage (HT-ATES) may play a key role in the development of sustainable energies and thereby in the overall reduction of CO2 emission. To this end, a thorough understanding of the thermal losses associated with HT-ATES is crucial. We provide in this study a numerical investigation of the thermal performance of an HT-ATES system for a heterogeneous aquifer modelled after a well-defined region in the Greater Geneva Basin (Switzerland), where the excess heat produced by a nearby waste-to-energy plant is available for storage. We consider different aquifer properties and flow conditions, with complex injection strategies that respect maximum/minimum well pressures and temperatures, as well as legal regulations. Based on the results, we also draw conclusions on the economical feasibility (e.g., energy recovery factor vs. drilling costs) for the different strategies.Our results indicate that the true behaviour of HT-ATES systems may deviate significantly from theoretical performance derived from idealised cases. This is particularly true when the operational pressure and temperature ranges of the wells are restricted, and for heterogeneous aquifers.

Changes in precipitation rates and the accelerating melting of glaciers due to global warming will strongly affect groundwater resources, whose demand is already expected to increase for the upcoming decades due to demographic growth and urbanization (Mays, 2013). Moreover, these resources may be subject to anthropogenic contamination during well activities (Dragon, 2008;Jasechko et al., 2017). Surface-and groundwater is not only crucial for the development of our society (Velis et al., 2017) but can also play a key role in mitigating the effect of climate change through the development of renewable energies, such as hydropower and geothermal energy (Jialing et al., 2015).Despite their elevated energy potential, high-enthalpy geothermal systems remain under-developed and confined in volcanic areas. In contrast, the development of low-to medium-enthalpy geothermal systems increased significantly over the last decades in suburban regions where the energy needs are the highest (Breede et al., 2013;Olasolo et al., 2016). Additionally, several examples have shown that the energy from medium-enthalpy geothermal systems represents a valuable asset for the reduction of green-house gas emissions while supporting our growing economy (

<p>Switzerland supports the energetic transition by promoting the development of geothermal energy among other renewable energies. In particular, the Canton of Geneva is actively prospecting the Geneva Basin, generating a large dataset of geophysical and geological information. This large dataset of the Geneva Basin is used here to constrain geologically complex numerical models of fluid flow. Previous and ongoing projects demonstrated the geothermal potential of the Geneva Basin but a consistent basin-scale fluid flow model of the area has yet to be defined.</p><p>We use MRST (Matlab Reservoir Simulation Toolbox) for which we recently developed a geothermal module. The module is available with the last MRST release (2019b) and it is used to build up a 3D basin-scale dynamic model of the Geneva Basin. The goal of our numerical study is to investigate the large-scale control of tectonic structures and lithological hetherogeneities on fluid flow in the basin.</p><p>The static model is derived from active seismic and gravity inversion data. Petrophysical data and geo-location of faults are obtained from the existing literature. The resulting heterogeneous model takes into account the main geological facies, observed in the basin. We define a reference simulation with standard initial conditions (geothermal gradient and hydrostatic pressure topographically corrected) and a basal incoming heat flux. We consider a single-phase pure water compressible laminar flow in porous media. The geothermal module solves the mass and energy conservation equations using a fully implicit finite-volume discretisation with two-point flux approximation and single-point upstream mobility weighting.</p><p>We design a parametric study along three main axis: tectonic structures (i.e. faults), petrophysical and thermal properties and perform twenty three simulations running for 500 000 years to reach an equilibrium flow (steady-state). Our results show that fluid flow is driven by the hydraulic head of the topographic highs bounding the basin. Hotter fluids are found in the centre of the basin where we propose to focus geothermal exploitation in the future. Our results represent, to our knowledge, the first example of 3D basin-scale fluid flow modelling used as a preliminary prospection method for the assessment of geothermal resources.</p>

<p>High temperature aquifer thermal energy storage (HT-ATES) can play a key role for a sustainable interplay between different energy sources and in the overall reduction of CO<sub>2</sub>emission. In this study, we numerically investigate the thermo-hydraulic processes of an HT-ATES in the Greater Geneva Basin (Switzerland). The main objective is to investigate how to handle the yearly excess of heat produced by a nearby waste-to-energy plant. We consider potential aquifers located in different stratigraphic units and design the model from available geological and geophysical data. Aquifer properties, flow conditions and well strategies are successively tested to evaluate their influence on the HT-ATES economic performance and environmental impact. This was achieved using a new open-access, user-friendly and efficient code that we also introduce here as a possible tool for geothermal applications.</p><p> </p><p>The results highlight the importance of thorough numerical simulations based on more realistic exploitation when designing HT-ATES systems. We show that relations between thermal performance and the shape of the injected thermal volume are generally hard to derive when complex well schedules are imposed because the injected/produced volumes may not be equal. Despite more complex storage strategies to comply with legal regulations, the shallower group of investigated aquifers in this study remains economically more suitable for storage up to 90ºC. In average four well doublets will be required to store the yearly excess of energy. The deeper group of investigated aquifers, however, become interesting for storage at higher temperatures.</p>