Characterization of ambient seismic noise near a deep geothermal reservoir and implications for interferometric methods: a case study in northern Alsace, France

Lehujeur, Maximilien; Vergne, Jérôme; Schmittbuhl, Jean; Maggi, Alessia

doi:10.1186/s40517-014-0020-2

Cited by 33 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The asymmetry between causal and acausal sides is also consistent in this period range. Higher amplitudes are observed on the causal side due to prominent microseismic sources located in the northern Atlantic Ocean for back azimuths approximately 290–310°N (Lehujeur et al, , ). For waveforms of both networks, we compare the ratio between the peak amplitude of direct arrivals (green time window, Figure ) and the root‐mean‐square of the NCF in the coda part (blue time window, Figure ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At Soultz‐sous‐Forêts, the potential of such techniques was first demonstrated by Calò et al () based on a 22‐station network. A comprehensive study of the properties of the ambient seismic noise recorded in the area has revealed a strong directivity of the ambient seismic noise at periods between 1 and 5 s that mainly originates from the Northern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea (Lehujeur et al, ). Such directivity patterns in the ambient seismic noise may affect the tomographic models obtained with sparse seismological networks (Lehujeur et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reservoir Imaging Using Ambient Noise Correlation From a Dense Seismic Network

et al. 2018

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In September 2014, a dense temporary seismic network (EstOF) including 288 single‐component geophones was deployed during 1 month in the Outre‐Forêt region of the Upper Rhine Graben (France), where two deep geothermal projects (Soultz‐sous‐Forêts and Rittershoffen) are currently in operation. We apply ambient seismic noise correlation to estimate the empirical Green's function of the medium between the ~41,200 station pairs in the network. The noise correlation functions obtained are comparable to those from previous studies based on the sparse long‐term networks settled in the area mostly to monitor the induced seismic activity. However, the dense spatial coverage of the EstOF network improves our ability to identify the main phases of the Green's function. Both the fundamental mode and the first overtone of the Rayleigh waves are identified between most station pairs. P waves are also evidenced. We analyze the statistical distribution of the Rayleigh wave group velocity between station pairs as a function of the period (between 0.8 and 5 s), the station pair orientation, the distance over wavelength ratio and the signal‐to‐noise ratio. From these observations, we build a high‐resolution three‐dimensional S wave velocity model of the upper crust (down to 3 km deep) around the regional deep geothermal reservoirs. This model is consistent with local geological structures but also evidences nonlithological variations, particularly at depth in the basement. These variations are interpreted as large‐scale temperature anomalies related to deep hydrothermal circulation.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reservoir Imaging Using Ambient Noise Correlation From a Dense Seismic Network

et al. 2018

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“…The frequency band of interest is therefore not impacted by the onset of the well operations in July 2013. This allows us to rule out human activity as a source for the changes at periods above 1 s, an observation that is also confirmed by a detailed characterization of ambient noise near the geothermal sites in northern Alsace from Lehujeur et al [].…”

Section: Monitoring the St Gallen Project With Ambient Noise Correlamentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential of ambient seismic noise techniques to monitor the St. Gallen geothermal site (Switzerland)

2015

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The failures of two recent deep geothermal energy projects in Switzerland (Basel, 2006; St. Gallen, 2013) have again highlighted that one of the key challenges for the successful development and operation of deep underground heat exchangers is to control the risk of inducing potentially hazardous seismic events. In St. Gallen, after an injection test and two acid injections that were accompanied by a small number of micro-earthquakes (M L < 0.2), operators were surprised by an uncontrolled gas release from the formation (gas kick). The "killing" procedures that had to be initiated following standard drilling procedures led to a M L 3.5 earthquake. With ambient seismic noise cross correlations from nine stations, we observe a significant loss of waveform coherence that we can horizontally and vertically constrain to the injection location of the fluid. The loss of waveform coherence starts with the onset of the fluid injections 4 days prior to the gas kick. We interpret the loss of coherence as a local perturbation of the medium. We show how ambient seismic noise analysis can be used to assess the aseismic response of the subsurface to geomechanical well operations and how this method could have helped to recognize the unexpected reservoir dynamics at an earlier stage than the microseismic response alone, allowed.

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“…Second, the coda of the lapse crosscorrelations has proved less sensitive to temporal variations in the illumination pattern than the direct (first) arrival (e.g. Hadziioannou et al 2009;Colombi et al 2014;Lehujeur et al 2015). Reducing the sensitivity of lapse crosscorrelations to the illumination pattern is therefore of immediate interest for such studies.…”

Section: Temporal Stabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of seismic interferometry by multidimensional deconvolution to ambient seismic noise recorded in Malargüe, Argentina

Weemstra

Draganov²,

Ruigrok

et al. 2016

Geophys. J. Int.

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S U M M A R YObtaining new seismic responses from existing recordings is generally referred to as seismic interferometry (SI). Conventionally, the SI responses are retrieved by simple crosscorrelation of recordings made by separate receivers: one of the receivers acts as a 'virtual source' whose response is retrieved at the other receivers. When SI is applied to recordings of ambient seismic noise, mostly surface waves are retrieved. The newly retrieved surface wave responses can be used to extract receiver-receiver phase velocities. These phase velocities often serve as input parameters for tomographic inverse problems. Another application of SI exploits the temporal stability of the multiply scattered arrivals of the newly retrieved surface wave responses. Temporal variations in the stability and/or arrival time of these multiply scattered arrivals can often be linked to temporally varying parameters such as hydrocarbon production and precipitation. For all applications, however, the accuracy of the retrieved responses is paramount. Correct response retrieval relies on a uniform illumination of the receivers: irregularities in the illumination pattern degrade the accuracy of the newly retrieved responses. In practice, the illumination pattern is often far from uniform. In that case, simple crosscorrelation of separate receiver recordings only yields an estimate of the actual, correct virtual-source response. Reformulating the theory underlying SI by crosscorrelation as a multidimensional deconvolution (MDD) process, allows this estimate to be improved. SI by MDD corrects for the non-uniform illumination pattern by means of a so-called point-spread function (PSF), which captures the irregularities in the illumination pattern. Deconvolution by this PSF removes the imprint of the irregularities on the responses obtained through simple crosscorrelation. We apply SI by MDD to surface wave data recorded by the Malargüe seismic array in western Argentina. The aperture of the array is approximately 60 km and it is located on a plateau just east of the Andean mountain range. The array has a T-shape: the receivers along one of the two lines act as virtual sources whose responses are recorded by the receivers along the other (perpendicular) line. We select time windows dominated by surface wave noise travelling in a favourable direction, that is, traversing the line of virtual sources before arriving at the receivers at which we aim to retrieve the virtual-source responses. These time windows are selected through a frequency-dependent slowness analysis along the two receiver lines. From the selected time windows, estimates of virtual-source responses are retrieved by means of crosscorrelations. Similarly, crosscorrelations between the positions of the virtual sources are computed to build C The

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Characterization of ambient seismic noise near a deep geothermal reservoir and implications for interferometric methods: a case study in northern Alsace, France

Cited by 33 publications

References 43 publications

Reservoir Imaging Using Ambient Noise Correlation From a Dense Seismic Network

Reservoir Imaging Using Ambient Noise Correlation From a Dense Seismic Network

Potential of ambient seismic noise techniques to monitor the St. Gallen geothermal site (Switzerland)

Application of seismic interferometry by multidimensional deconvolution to ambient seismic noise recorded in Malargüe, Argentina

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