Crustal stress determination from boreholes and rock cores: Fundamental principles

Schmitt, Douglas R.; Currie, Claire A.; Zhang, Lei

doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2012.08.029

Cited by 172 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 198 publications

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“…Ljunggren et al, 2003;Schmitt et al, 2012;Zang and Stephansson, 2010). The following components of the stress tensor are potentially available: the azimuth of the maximum (or minimum) horizontal stress (S Hmax ), the vertical stress magnitude (S V ), as well as the magnitudes of the maximum and minimum horizontal stress (S hmin and S Hmax ).…”

Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With this assumption, the minimum horizontal stress (S hmin ) and the maximum horizontal stress (S Hmax ) (e.g. Jaeger et al, 2009;McGarr and Gay, 1978;Schmitt et al, 2012) are also principal stresses that are orthogonal to each other (Fig. 10).…”

Section: Orientation and Magnitudes Of Stresses In Sedimentary Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More details can be found in Amadei and Stephansson (1997), Jaeger et al (2009), Schmitt et al (2012, Zang and Stephansson (2010) and Zoback (2007). Figure 9.…”

Section: Orientation and Magnitudes Of Stresses In Sedimentary Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The orientation of S Hmax is indicated by borehole breakouts, focal mechanisms, hydraulic fracturing, overcoring, and drilling-induced fractured and geological indicators (for an overview, see Bell, 1996a;Ljunggren et al, 2003;Schmitt et al, 2012;Zang and Stephansson, 2010;. 321 S Hmax azimuth data sets are available for the modelled region in Alberta; these are indicated in Fig.…”

Section: Orientation Of Maximum Horizontal Stress (S Hmax )mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, there are several methods used to calculate S Hmax , based on S hmin magnitudes and known rock properties (e.g. Schmitt et al, 2012). For the model region, 11 calculated data (Bell et al, 1994) and 2 shallow measured data (overcoring from Kaiser et al, 1982) are available (see Fig.…”

Section: Magnitude Of Maximum Horizontal Stress (S Hmax )mentioning

confidence: 99%

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3-D geomechanical–numerical model of the contemporary crustal stress state in the Alberta Basin (Canada)

Reiter

Heidbach

2014

Solid Earth

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Abstract. In the context of examining the potential usage of safe and sustainable geothermal energy in the Alberta Basin, whether in deep sediments or crystalline rock, the understanding of the in situ stress state is crucial. It is a key challenge to estimate the 3-D stress state at an arbitrarily chosen point in the crust, based on sparsely distributed in situ stress data.To address this challenge, we present a large-scale 3-D geomechanical-numerical model (700 km×1200 km×80 km) from a large portion of the Alberta Basin, to provide a 3-D continuous quantification of the contemporary stress orientations and stress magnitudes. To calibrate the model, we use a large database of in situ stress orientation (321 S Hmax ) as well as stress magnitude data (981 S V , 1720 S hmin and 2 (+11) S Hmax ) from the Alberta Basin. To find the best-fit model, we vary the material properties and primarily the displacement boundary conditions of the model. This study focusses in detail on the statistical calibration procedure, because of the large amount of available data, the diversity of data types, and the importance of the order of data tests.The best-fit model provides the total 3-D stress tensor for nearly the whole Alberta Basin, and allows estimation of stress orientation and stress magnitudes in advance of any well. First-order implications for the well design and configuration of enhanced geothermal systems are revealed. Systematic deviations of the modelled stress from the in situ data are found for stress orientations in the Peace River and the Bow Island Arch as well as for leak-off test magnitudes.

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Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Orientation and Magnitudes Of Stresses In Sedimentary Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More details can be found in Amadei and Stephansson (1997), Jaeger et al (2009), Schmitt et al (2012, Zang and Stephansson (2010) and Zoback (2007). Figure 9.…”

Section: Orientation and Magnitudes Of Stresses In Sedimentary Basinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Orientation Of Maximum Horizontal Stress (S Hmax )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Magnitude Of Maximum Horizontal Stress (S Hmax )mentioning

confidence: 99%

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3-D geomechanical–numerical model of the contemporary crustal stress state in the Alberta Basin (Canada)

Reiter

Heidbach

2014

Solid Earth

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Heterogeneity of structure and stress in the Rotokawa Geothermal Field, New Zealand

et al. 2015

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Geometric characterization of a geothermal reservoir's structures, and their relation to stress field orientation, is vital for resource development. Subsurface structure and stress field orientations of the Rotokawa Geothermal Field, New Zealand, have been studied, for the first time, using observations obtained from analysis of three acoustic borehole televiewer logs. While an overall NE-SW fracture strike exists, heterogeneity in fracture dip orientation is evident. Dominant dip direction changes from well to well due to proximity to variously oriented, graben-bounding faults. Fracture orientation heterogeneity also occurs within individual wells, where fractures clusters within certain depth intervals have antithetic dip directions to the well's dominant fracture dip direction. These patterns are consistent with expected antithetic faulting in extensional environments. A general S Hmax orientation of NE-SW is determined from induced features on borehole walls. However, numerous localized azimuthal variations from this trend are evident, constituting stress field orientation heterogeneity. These variations are attributed to slip on fracture planes evidenced by changes in the azimuth of drilling-induced tensile fractures either side of a natural fracture. Correlation of observed fracture properties and patterns to well permeability indicators reveal that fractures play a role in fluid flow in the Rotokawa geothermal reservoir. Permeable zones commonly contain wide aperture fractures and high fracture densities which have a dominant NE-SW strike orientation and NW dip direction. Studies of this kind, which show strong interdependency of structure and stress field properties, are essential to understand fluid flow in geothermal reservoirs where structural permeability dominates.

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Seismic velocity changes associated with aseismic deformations of a fault stimulated by fluid injection

Rivet

Barros

Guglielmi

et al. 2016

Geophysical Research Letters

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Fluid pressure plays an important role in the stability of tectonic faults. However, the in situ mechanical response of faults to fluid pressure variations is still poorly known. To address this question, we performed a fluid injection experiment in a fault zone in shales while monitoring fault movements at the injection source and seismic velocity variations from a near‐distance (<10 m) monitoring network. We measured and located the P and S wave velocity perturbations in and around the fault using repetitive active sources. We observed that seismic velocity perturbations dramatically increase above 1.5 MPa of injection pressure. This is consistent with an increase of fluid flow associated with an aseismic dilatant shearing of the fault as shown by numerical modeling. We find that seismic velocity changes are sensitive to both fault opening by fluid invasion and effective stress variations and can be an efficient measurement for monitoring fluid‐driven aseismic deformations of faults.

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Crustal stress determination from boreholes and rock cores: Fundamental principles

Cited by 172 publications

References 198 publications

3-D geomechanical–numerical model of the contemporary crustal stress state in the Alberta Basin (Canada)

3-D geomechanical–numerical model of the contemporary crustal stress state in the Alberta Basin (Canada)

Heterogeneity of structure and stress in the Rotokawa Geothermal Field, New Zealand

Seismic velocity changes associated with aseismic deformations of a fault stimulated by fluid injection

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