%A Beata Orlecka-Sikora
%A Szymon Cielesta
%A Stanislaw Lasocki
%J Acta Geophysica
%T Tracking the development of seismic fracture network from The Geysers geothermal field
%X Underground fluid injections result in rock mass fracturing. The associated environmental hazards in a significant part stem from a possibility for linking these fractures. The resultant crevices may allow for an undesired and hazardous fluid migration. We studied the fracture linking problem on data from a part of The Geysers geothermal field in California, USA. We parameterized seismic events by the distance between hypocenter and injecting well, by the angle between the position vector of hypocentre and the maximum horizontal stress direction and by the angle of rotation required to turn the event’s double-couple mechanism into the prevailing in this area faults’ orientation. To make these parameters comparable, we transformed them to equivalent dimensions. Based on distances between events in the transformed parameter space, we divided the seismic events into clusters. The percentage of potentially linked fractures in clusters was greater at low than at high injection rate.
%N 1
%K Fluid injection Induced seismicity Fracture network Equivalent dimensions
%P 341-350
%V 67
%D 2018
%I Springer Verlag
%R doi:10.1007/s11600-018-0202-6
%L epos2137