Abstract
A 3600 m deep well has been used to conduct large water injection tests in the Rhine Graben. The total volume injected during the fall 1993 reconnaissance program reached 44000 m3. Induced seismicity was monitored with both a downhole and a surface seismic network. About 20000 events have been recorded by the downhole tools and 165 events with the surface network. The largest observed magnitude reached 1.9, as determined from signal duration observed on the surface network. Borehole televiewer observations show that some slip events were larger than 4 cm at the borehole wall, a value much larger than the slip motion associated with microseismic events, as evaluated from events’ magnitude. It is concluded that these observed slip events were aseismic. This implies that induced seismicity is not a good marker for the efficiency of this hydraulic stimulation. It only helps to identify zones of high pore pressure during injection.
Formerly with Ecole et Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg, France
Formerly with IPGP
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Baria, R., Baumgartner, J., and Gerard, A. (1996), European Hot Dry Rock Programme 1992–1995; 327 p., Extended Summary for contract JOU2-CT92-0115 to European Community (DG XII), Socomine, Soultz/forets, France.
Barton, C. A., and Zoback, M. D. (1994), Stress Perturbation Associated with Active Faults Penetrated by Boreholes: Possible Evidence of Near-complete Stress Drop and New Technique for Stress Magnitude Measurements, J. Geophys. Res. 99 (B5), 9373–9390.
Brune, J. N. (1970), Tectonic Stresses and the Spectra of Seismic Shear Waves from Earthquakes, J. Geophys. Res 75, 4997–5009.
Cochard, A., and Madariaga, R. (1994), Dynamic Faulting under Rate-dependent Friction, Pure appl. geophys. 142 (3/4), 419–445.
Cornet, F. H., In situ stress heterogeneity identification with the HTPF tool. In Proceedings 33rd U.S. Rock Mech. Symp. (Tillerson and Wawersik, eds.) pp. 39–48 (Balkema, Rotterdam 1992).
Cornet, F. H., and Jones, R., Field evidences on the orientation of forced water flow with respect to the regional principal stress directions. In Proc. 1st North Amer. Rock Mech. Symp. (Nelson and Laubach, eds.) pp. 61–69 (Balkema, Rotterdam 1994).
Cornet, F. H., and Yin, J. (1995), Analysis of Induced Seismicity for Stress Field Determination and Pore Pressure Mapping, Pure appl. geophys. 45 (3/4), 677–700.
Evans, K. F., Burford, R. O., and King, G. C. P. (1981), Propagating Episodic Creep and the Aseismic Behavior of the Calaveras Fault North of Holister, California, J. Geophys. Res. 86 (B5), 3721–3735.
Evans, K. F., Kohl, T., Hopkirk, R. J., and Rybach, L. (1996), Studies of the Nature of Nonlinear Impedance to Flow within the Fractured Granitic Reservoir at the European Hot Dry Rock Project Site at Soultz-sous-Fôrets, France, Bundesamt für Bildung und Wissenschaft, Projekt 93.0010—Final Report; 144 pp; Swiss Federal Inst, of Tech, Institute of Geophysics Zürich.
Genter, A., Martin, P., and Montaggioni, P. (1991), Application of FMS and BHTV Tools for Evaluation of Natural Fractures in the Soultz Geothermal Borehole GPK1, Geoth. Sci. and Tech. 4 (3), 189–214.
Ihmle, P. F., and Jordan, T. H. (1994), Teleseismic Search for Slow Precursors to Large Earthquakes, Science 266, 1547–1551.
Hayman, A., Parent, P., Cheung, P., and Verges, P. (1994), Improved Borehole Imaging by Ultrasonics, Soc. Petr. Eng. Paper 28 440.
Helm, J. A. (1995), The Natural Seismic Hazard and Induced Seismicity of the European Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy Project at Soultz-sous-Fôrets (Bas-Rhin, France), These de Doctorat, 197 pp; Ecole et Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France.
Jones, R. H. Beauce, A., Jupe, A., Fabriol, H., and Dyer, B. C., Imaging induced micro seismicity during the 1993 injection tests at Soultz-sous-Fôrets. In Proc. World Geothermal Congress, Florence, Italy, vol. 4, pp. 2665–2669 (Int. Geotherm. Assoc. Pub., San Diego 1995).
Kanamori, H., and Anderson, D. L. (1975), Theoretical Basis of some Empirical Relations in Seismology, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 65 (5), 1073–1095.
Kappelmeyer, O., Gerard, A., Schloemer, W., Ferrandes, R., Rummel, F., and Benderitter, Y. (1991), European HDR Project at Soultz-sous-Fôrets, General Presentation, Geotherm. Sci. and Tech. 2 (4), 263–289.
Majer, E. L., and McEvilly, T. V. (1979), Seismological Investigations at the Geysers Geothermal Field, Geophysics 44, 246–269.
McGuire, J. J., Ihmle, P. F., and Jordan, T. H. (1996), Time Domain Observations of a Slow Precursor to the 1994 Romanche Transform Earthquake, Science 274, 82–85.
Pearson, C. (1982), Parameters and a Magnitude Moment Relationship from Small Earthquakes Observed during Hydraulic Fracturing Experiments in Crystalline Rocks, Geophys. Res. Lett. 9 (4), 404–407.
Poitrenaud, H. (1995), Application des mesures par «Ultrasonic Borehole Imager» a la determination de glissements sur fractures preexistantes, Rapport de stage DESS de l’Instit. de Phys. du Globe de Paris; Schlumberger-Riboud Product Center; 106 pp.
Shamir, G., and Zoback, M. D. (1992), Stress Orientation Profile to 3.5 km Depth near the San Andreas Fault at Cajon Pass, California, J. Geophys. Res. 97 (B4), 5059–5080.
Zemanek, J., Glenn, E., Norton, C. J., and Cardwell, R. L. (1970), Formation Evaluation by Inspection with a Borehole Televiewer, Geophys. 35, 254–269.
Zoback, M. D., Moos, D., Mastin, L., and Anderson, R. N. (1985), Wellbore Breakouts and in situ Stress, J. Geophys. Res. 90 (B7), 5523–5530.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Basel AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Cornet, F.H., Helm, J., Poitrenaud, H., Etchecopar, A. (1997). Seismic and Aseismic Slips Induced by Large-scale Fluid Injections. In: Talebi, S. (eds) Seismicity Associated with Mines, Reservoirs and Fluid Injections. Pageoph Topical Volumes. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8814-1_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8814-1_12
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel
Print ISBN: 978-3-7643-5878-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-8814-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive