Shallow Aseismic Slip in the Delaware Basin Determined by Sentinel-1 InSAR

Pepin, Karissa; Ellsworth, William L.; Sheng, Yixiao; Zebker, H. A.

doi:10.1002/essoar.10508252.1

Cited by 6 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Epicenters of the earthquakes cluster along the prominent northwest-trending subsidence lineation determined from Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (Fig. 4; Pepin et al, 2021), as do the centroids determined in the moment tensor analysis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…The implication is clear: most of the fault slip occurs aseismically. Pepin et al (2021) also noted the coincidence of saltwater disposal wells actively injecting wastewater into the Delaware Mountain Group near the activated faults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…In a companion study, Pepin et al (2021) attributed surface deformation in the study area to slip on normal faults in the Delaware Mountain Group. Their final model of vertical and east-west deformation included three parallel, high-angle normal faults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The coincidence of the seismicity, aseismic deformation Pepin et al, 2021), and wastewater injection to a common, restricted depth interval, where geomechanical analysis predicts northwest-striking, high-angle normal faults are critically stressed, strongly suggests that preexisting faults are being activated by reducing the effective normal stress via pore pressure elevation. Although the study area contains multiple horizontal production wells (∼3.6 km below the ground surface), all located below the depth of seismicity, we found no evidence of changes in seismicity coincident with the hydraulic fracturing of the eight wells (shown in Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Depth of Earthquakes in the Delaware Basin: A Case Study along the Reeves–Pecos County Line

2022

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Increased rates of seismicity in the Delaware basin, Texas, accompanying unconventional petroleum development have created intensive interest in determining their cause. Detailed and accurate spatial distribution of seismicity and focal mechanisms are critical components for understanding the underlying industrial processes responsible for inducing seismicity. We focus on a highly seismically active area straddling the Reeves–Pecos County line where two TexNet stations sit atop the seismicity, which includes 21 ML 3+ events from 2017 to 2020 (Advanced National Seismic System Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog). Short epicentral distance enables us to reliably estimate the hypocentral depth using seismic phase picks and standard location methods. We use a deep-learning-based method to detect earthquakes and time the phase arrivals. Hypocentral locations computed in a velocity model constrained by local well data reveal that the seismicity concentrates between 1.5 and 2.5 km below ground in the Delaware Mountain Group, the primary wastewater disposal zone at this location. Waveform inversions for the moment tensor and focal depth independently confirm the shallow depths. The moment tensor solutions define critically stressed high-angle normal faults, suggesting a causal connection between injection and seismicity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Depth of Earthquakes in the Delaware Basin: A Case Study along the Reeves–Pecos County Line

2022

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“…The InSAR cumulative displacements (vertical and east‐west horizontal) are available in data citation: Pepin et al. (2021) via https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5842110. The relocated earthquakes and moment tensor solutions data set (Sheng et al.…”

Section: Data Availability Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shallow Aseismic Slip in the Delaware Basin Determined by Sentinel‐1 InSAR

et al. 2022

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The Delaware Basin is a giant oil and gas field in the Permian Basin, covering an extensive portion (22,000 km 2 ) of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico (Figure 1a inset). After being heavily exploited in the 20th century via conventional vertical production, 2009 brought a resurgence in oil and gas activity due to the development of organic rich shale beds using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. "unconventional") techniques. Similar to what has been observed in oil fields around the world, the Delaware Basin experienced an uptick in seismic activity coincident with unconventional development, leading many seismologists to infer those earthquakes were being induced by the development itself (e.g., Frohlich et al., 2016;Skoumal et al., 2020). Consequently, the state of Texas funded deployment of a regional seismic network, the TexNet array (Savvaidis et al., 2019), to better detect the regional seismicity and determine the underlying causes. The network has recorded thousands of small-to-moderate earthquakes in the Delaware Basin since its deployment in January 2017, including a M W 4.8 event on 26 March 2020 (Figure 1a). These events are mainly concentrated in the southeastern portion of the Delaware Basin in Reeves county, despite widespread oil and gas activity throughout the basin (Figure 1b).

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Rate-and-state modeling of injection-induced aseismic slip in the Delaware Basin constrains fault-zone pore pressure changes

Dvory

Yang

Dunham

2022

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Recent inversions of InSAR ground surface deformation in the Delaware Basin have revealed aseismic slip on conjugate, semioptimally oriented normal faults. Slip, occurring over 3-5 years, extends approximately 1 km down-dip, over 10 km along strike, and reaches 23 cm. Several disposal wells are located nearby, suggesting that pressure changes from injection might have induced slip. We develop and calibrate 2D and pseudo-3D coupled pore pressure diffusion and rate-state models with velocity-strengthening friction. Pore pressure diffusion is limited to a high-permeability fault damage zone, and the net influx of fluid is adjusted to match the observed slip. A pressure increase of 1-2 MPa is required to initiate slip. Most aseismic slip occurs at approximately constant friction and ˜5 MPa additional pressure increase is needed to reach ˜20 cm slip. Our work suggests that models of the type developed here can be used to operationally manage injection-induced aseismic slip. Hosted fileessoar.10510121.1.docx available at https://authorea.com/users/555322/articles/605978-rateand-state-modeling-of-injection-induced-aseismic-slip-in-the-delaware-basin-constrainsfault-zone-pore-pressure-changes Hosted file nzd yy x emd, grl 2021 20211209 -si.docx available at https://authorea.com/users/555322/ articles/605978-rate-and-state-modeling-of-injection-induced-aseismic-slip-in-thedelaware-basin-constrains-fault-zone-pore-pressure-changes Rate-and-state modeling of injection-induced aseismic slip in the Delaware Basin constrains fault-zone pore pressure changes

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Shallow Aseismic Slip in the Delaware Basin Determined by Sentinel-1 InSAR

Cited by 6 publications

References 34 publications

On the Depth of Earthquakes in the Delaware Basin: A Case Study along the Reeves–Pecos County Line

On the Depth of Earthquakes in the Delaware Basin: A Case Study along the Reeves–Pecos County Line

Shallow Aseismic Slip in the Delaware Basin Determined by Sentinel‐1 InSAR

Rate-and-state modeling of injection-induced aseismic slip in the Delaware Basin constrains fault-zone pore pressure changes

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