Aseismic Multifissure Modeling in Unfaulted Heavily Pumped Basins: Mechanisms and Applications

Li, Yueting; Teatini, Pietro; Yu, Jingjie; Franceschini, A.; Frigo, Matteo; Zoccarato, Claudia; Ye, Shujun

doi:10.1029/2021wr030127

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Further, recent modelling of subsidence in China and the US indicates that the earth fissures that can also develop with water extraction from pumping are likely to be caused by an aseismic event related to a ridge in the base of the pumped aquifer (e.g. Li, 2021;Nardean et al, 2021). If such a fissure developed under a CSG salt-holding pond, it could have catastrophic consequences through salt release to the environment and, if on a farm, loss of potential irrigation and crop pro duction.…”

Section: Subsidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Coal Seam Gas Mining: An Assault on Farming Land, Water Resources and Property Rights

Dart¹,

Lynam²,

Pointon³

et al. 2022

Proc. R. Soc. Qld.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coal seam gas mining in the Surat and Bowen Basins in Queensland, Australia, has developed rapidly over the past decade. Many landholders are concerned about the effects of the i ndustry on groundwater and agricultural resources and the weakness of official oversight, recently criticised by the Queensland Audit Office. Gas and water extraction is now extending under some of the most productive agricultural lands in Australia, the Darling Downs. Uncertainties remain as to the impacts of gas activities on aquifers. The water extracted along with the gas is often salty, and the method of disposing of the salts is a contentious, unresolved issue. The power imbalance between industry and landholders and weak regulation of industry hinders efforts by the in dustry to obtain a social licence. Governments have, to a large extent, neglected the region-wide and long-term effects of the mining. Extracting gas and water from the coal seams leaves depressurised zones, which lead to subsidence of the earth layers above the seam and leakage of aquifers into the coal seams with deleterious consequences for agricultural production. The statutory 'make good' process for compensating for loss of the aquifer water does not adequately offset the negative effects on the hydrological resources and on agricultural production. The prevailing self-regulation, lack of baseline assessment and inadequate monitoring of the mining processes are abrogations of government responsibility and the precautionary principle. As the industry is still ramping up, there is precious little time to protect agricultural land and the natural systems that underpin agriculture from potentially irrevocable damage.

show abstract

Section: Subsidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Coal Seam Gas Mining: An Assault on Farming Land, Water Resources and Property Rights

Dart¹,

Lynam²,

Pointon³

et al. 2022

Proc. R. Soc. Qld.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Subsidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2022

Proc. R. Soc. Qld.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Royal Society of Queensland has an honourable history as the senior scientific institution in the state. It was established in 1884, with royal patronage continuing unbroken from 1885. Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young PSM, Governor of Queensland, is the present Patron.The Society seeks to increase respect for intellectual enquiry. It encourages original research and the application of evidence-based methods to policy development and decision making. The Society provides a forum for scientists and lay people to involve themselves in the progress of science in society, with 'science' defined broadly. As a non-partisan, secular, learned group, the Society is committed to the Enlightenment tradition of curiosity-led, knowledge-based enquiry that arguably was born with the Royal Society in London in 1660.The centrepiece activity of the Society is the production of the annual scientific journal Proceedings of The Royal Society of Queensland, supplemented from time to time with Special Issues on specific themes. Proceedings of The Royal Society of QueenslandThe Proceedings publishes original scholarship and investigation in natural history relevant to Queensland, including the biodiversity, conservation, use, management and economic significance of natural resources. All aspects of the natural sciences, including astronomy, geology, hydrology, botany and zoology, biomedicine, introduced species and dynamic land and water processes, are considered. The journal will also publish papers on general science, including science-related history, policy, education and philosophy. Papers written from within the social sciences, such as sociology, culture and heritage that deal with the use or management of a natural resource, are welcome.

show abstract

Sensitivity analysis of factors controlling earth fissures due to excessive groundwater pumping

Friedman

Teatini

et al. 2022

Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aseisimic earth fissures are complex consequences of groundwater withdrawal and natural hydrogeologic conditions. This paper aims to improve the understanding of the mechanism of earth fissuring and investigate the relative importance of various factors to fissure activity, including bedrock geometry, piezometric depletion, compressibility and thickness of the exploited aquifer. For these purposes, a test case characterized by an impermeable and incompressible rock ridge in a subsiding basin is developed, where stress/displacement analyses and fissure state are predicted using an interface-finite element model. Three different methods for global sensitivity analysis are used to quantify the extent of the fissure opening to the aforementioned factors. The conventional sampling based Sobol’ sensitivity analysis is compared to two surrogate based methods, the general polynomial chaos expansion based Sobol’ analysis and a feature importance evaluation of a gradient boosting decision tree model. Numerical results indicate that earth fissure is forming in response to tensile stress accumulation above the ridge associated to pore-pressure depletion, inducing the fissure opening at land surface with further downward propagation. Sensitivity analysis highlights that the geometry of bedrock ridge is the most influential feature. Specifically, the fissure grows more when the ridge is steeper and closer to the land surface. Pore pressure depletion is a secondary feature and required to reach a certain threshold to activate the fissure. As for this specific application, the gradient boosting tree is the most suitable method for its better performance in capturing fissure characteristics.

show abstract

Aseismic Multifissure Modeling in Unfaulted Heavily Pumped Basins: Mechanisms and Applications

Cited by 6 publications

References 51 publications

Coal Seam Gas Mining: An Assault on Farming Land, Water Resources and Property Rights

Coal Seam Gas Mining: An Assault on Farming Land, Water Resources and Property Rights

Untitled

Sensitivity analysis of factors controlling earth fissures due to excessive groundwater pumping

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About