Pore pressure threshold and fault slip potential for induced earthquakes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of north central Texas
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Abstract
Earthquakes were induced in the Fort Worth Basin from 2008 through 2020 by increase in pore pressure from injection of oilfield wastewater (SWD). In this region and elsewhere, a missing link in understanding the mechanics of causation has been a lack of comprehensive models of pore pressure evolution (ΔPp) from SWD. We integrate detailed earthquake catalogs, ΔPp, and probabilistic fault slip potential (FSP) and find that faults near large-scale SWD operations became unstable early, when ΔPp reached ∼0.31 MPa and FSP reached 0.24. Faults farther from SWD became unstable later, when FSP reached 0.17 and at much smaller ΔPp. Earthquake sequences reactivated with mean ΔPp of ∼0.05 MPa. The response of faults shows strong variability, with many remaining stable at higher ΔPp and few that became seismogenic at smaller changes. As ΔPp spread regionally, an ever-increasing number of faults were impacted and the most sensitive became unstable.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Pore pressure threshold and fault slip potential for induced earthquakes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of north central Texas |
| Series title | Geophysical Research Letters |
| DOI | 10.1029/2021GL093564 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 15 |
| Year Published | 2021 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | American Geophysical Union |
| Contributing office(s) | Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center |
| Description | e2021GL093564, 9 p. |
| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| Other Geospatial | Dallas-Fort Worth area |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |