We recently published a paper entitled “Seismic Moment Evolution During Hydraulic Stimulations” in Geophysical Research Letters. In the paper we analyze the magnitude and seismic moment evolution with injection parameters for prominent
geothermal and scientific projects to date. In most reservoirs we found that the maximum observed magnitudes relate linearly to the injected volume or hydraulic energy, suggesting stable growth of induced ruptures, as predicted by current models of self-arrested ruptures. However, the analysis suggests that magnitudes can grow unbound, for which the maximum magnitude is only limited by the size of tectonic faults and fault connectivity. The paper is open access.
Reference:
Bentz, S., G. Kwiatek, P. Martínez-Garzón, M. Bohnhoff, and G. Dresen (2020). Seismic moment evolution during hydraulic stimulations, Geophys. Res. Lett. DOI: 10.1029/2019GL086185. [ Article Page ] [ Open access online PDF ] (published)