An Incomplete Inventory of Suspected Human-Induced Surface Deformation in North America Detected by Satellite Interferometric Synthetic-Aperture Radar

Abstract

Abstract:We used satellite interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR) data to document ground deformation across North America suspected to be caused by human activities. We showed that anthropogenic deformation can be measured from space across the continent and thus satellite observations should be collected routinely to characterize this deformation. We included results from the literature as well as new analysis of more than 5000 interferograms from the European Remote Sensing (ERS) satellite, Envisat, the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS), and other satellites, collectively spanning the period 1992-2015. This compilation, while not complete in terms of spatial or temporal coverage nor uniform in quality over the region, contains 263 different areas of likely anthropogenic ground deformation, including 65 that were previously unreported. The sources can be attributed to groundwater extraction (50%), geothermal sites (6%), hydrocarbon production (20%), mining (21%), and other sources (3%) such as lake level changes driven by human activities and tunneling. In a few areas, the source of deformation is ambiguous. We found at least 80 global positioning system (GPS) stations within 20 km of of these areas that could be contaminated by the anthropogenic deformation. At sites where we performed a full time series analysis, we found a mix of steady and time-variable deformation rates. For example, at the East Mesa Geothermal Field in California, we found an area that changed from subsidence to uplift around 2006, even though publicly available records of pumping and injection showed no change during that time. We illustrate selected non-detections from wastewater injection in Oklahoma and eastern Texas, where we found that the detection threshold with available data is >0.5 cm/yr. This places into doubt previous results claiming detection below this threshold in eastern Texas. However, we found likely injection-induced uplift in a different area of eastern Texas at rates in excess of −2 cm/yr. We encourage others to expand the database in space and time in the supplemental material.

InSAR Reveals Complex Surface Deformation Patterns Over an 80,000 km2Oil‐Producing Region in the Permian Basin

“…These surface deformation measurements can be used to derive information about Earth's subsurface, estimate the distribution of fault slip, and infer associated seismic risk (Elliott et al, 2016; Huang et al, 2017; Segall, 2010). Within Texas, Shirzaei et al (2016) reported indications of surface uplift due to wastewater injection near a 2012 M 4.8 earthquake, though limited validation for the ALOS data was available at this site near Timpson, TX (Semple et al, 2017). Kim and Lu (2018) detected multiple deformation bowls within the Delaware Basin related to wastewater injection, CO 2 injection, and hydrocarbon production using Sentinel‐1 InSAR data.…”

Assessment of ground deformation and seismicity in two areas of intense hydrocarbon production in the Argentinian Patagonia

“…The literature illustrates various examples of geohazards triggered by the hydrocarbon industry around the globe such as ground displacements associated with fluid injection and extraction [1][2][3] ; seismicity induced by fluid extraction and associated surface deformation (e.g. Lacq gas field in France 4 , the Groningen field in the Netherlands 5 ); seismicity correlated to the injection of wastewater and enhanced oil recovery 6 , to shale gas hydraulic fracturing [7][8][9] , and to hydraulic stimulation for enhanced geothermal systems, which operates in a similar way to hydrocarbon production 10 .…”

Analysis and Classification of Natural and Human-Induced Ground Deformations at Regional Scale (Campania, Italy) Detected by Satellite Synthetic-Aperture Radar Interferometry Archive Datasets

“…As SAR satellite sensors have a side-looking view, PSI displacements can be measured only along the LOS direction, which in the study area is in the range of 22-34 • (Table 1). Observed increases or decreases in the LOS can be due to ground subsidence and uplift, respectively, although horizontal motions do occur and can dominate in some locations [24]. For those areas common to both acquisition geometries, the overlapping availability of ascending and descending PSI datasets allows for the evaluation of two spatial components (vertical and E-W horizontal ones) of ground deformation, based on simple trigonometric rules [5,14], as the N-S horizontal component is not detected by the SAR satellite acquisition system.…”