Monitoring reservoir response to earthquakes and fluid extraction, Salton Sea geothermal field, California

Abstract

Seismic interferometry provides insights into in situ reservoir response to stress changes.

Ambient Noise Monitoring of Seismic Velocity Around the Longmenshan Fault Zone From 10 Years of Continuous Observation

“…In the past, most noise‐based monitoring studies mainly focused on the changes in coseismic velocities (e.g., Chen et al, ; Takagi et al, ; Wegler et al, ; Wegler & Sens‐Schönfelder, ; Yu & Hung, ; Zaccarelli et al, ). In recent years, we have seen a rapid increase in studies on the postseismic velocity changes or recovery of seismic velocity as a result of high‐quality and long‐term seismic observation (e.g., Brenguier, Campillo, et al, ; Gassenmeier et al, ; Hobiger et al, , ; Liu et al, ; Soldati et al, ; Taira et al, ; Ueno et al, ; Wu et al, ).…”

“…Generally, the coda wave, especially the early part of coda that has been used to investigate the seismic velocity variations in the underground medium through ambient noise technique, can be viewed as primarily dominated by surface wave energy (Obermann et al, 2013(Obermann et al, , 2016. Therefore, we can analyze the seismic velocity variations at different depths through measuring the seismic velocity variations in different period (or frequency) bands (e.g., Hobiger et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2014;Nimiya et al, 2017;Taira et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2016).…”

“…In the past, most noise-based monitoring studies mainly focused on the changes in coseismic velocities (e.g., Chen et al, 2010;Takagi et al, 2012;Wegler et al, 2009;Wegler & Sens-Schönfelder, 2007;Yu & Hung, 2012;Zaccarelli et al, 2011). In recent years, we have seen a rapid increase in studies on the postseismic velocity changes or recovery of seismic velocity as a result of high-quality and long-term seismic observation (e.g., Gassenmeier et al, 2016;Hobiger et al, 2012Hobiger et al, , 2016Liu et al, 2014;Soldati et al, 2015;Taira et al, 2018;Ueno et al, 2012;Wu et al, 2016). Hobiger et al (2016) systematically studied the characteristics of seismic velocity recovery in different frequency bands of different earthquakes and found that the recovery time constant for all earthquakes was 0.55 years, wherein the coseismic velocity reduction is further divided into two sections: one is potential maximal recovery value, and the other is nonrecovery residual value, and the recovery time constant is defined as the time when the coseismic velocity drop recovers to a factor of 1/e of the maximal recovery value using an exponential fitting algorithm.…”

Meteorological Macro-Imagineering: A Re-plumbed Freshwater Supply System for the USA’s Southwest? (Macro-Imagenharia Meteorológica: Um Sistema de Abastecimento de Água Doce para o Sudoeste dos EUA?)

“…During 1540 AD, Spanish explorer Melchor Diaz encountered "fields of boiling mud" at several places on his march northwards from the Colorado River Delta and, before their anthropogenic submergence centuries later, live steam fumaroles, mud volcanos and boiling mud-pots were encountered by local inhabitants. The first effort to exploit the evident geotherm resources of the Salton Sea Trough took place during 1927-1928 AD [33]. Moderate future release of geothermal heat by Nature into the seawater beneath the enlarged Salton Sea's artificial island can be considered quite beneficial since by raising the seawater temperature for the distillery, the distillation process is made quicker and thus more efficient [34] and some have already sought successfully means to tap this manifestation of Earth-crust energy resource via underwater submarine geothermal facilities [35].…”

Heterogeneous Permeability Changes along a Fault Zone Caused by the Xingwen M5.7 Earthquake in SW China

“…Given the certainty and correlation between seismic events and the responses of well water levels, investigation of coseismic responses has become an important research focus in seismic hydrology (Shi, Zhang et al, 2018), especially for the coseismic responses of well water level and spring flow (Brodsky et al, 2003;Elkhoury et al, 2006;Manga et al, 2012;Shi et al, 2013;Sun et al, 2015;Taira et al, 2018). Some earlier studies have argued that coseismic responses of well water level are caused by coseismic Coulomb stress, generated during the fault rupture process; that is, coseismic strain is the main cause of the coseismic response of the well water level, and accordingly, the studies proposed a four-quadrant strain pattern (Jónsson et al, 2003).…”