An improved method for hydrofracture induced microseismic event detection and phase picking
Author(s)
Song, Fuxian; Kuleli, Huseyin Sadi; Toksoz, M. Nafi; Ay, Erkan; Zhang, Haijiang
Downloadpaper12_Song_eventdetect_2010.pdf (2.731Mb)
Other Contributors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earth Resources Laboratory
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The ability to detect small microearthquakes and identify their P and S phase arrivals is a
key issue in hydrofracture downhole monitoring because of the low signal-to-noise ratios.
We apply an array-based waveform correlation approach (matched filter) to improve the
detectability of small magnitude events with mechanisms and locations similar to a
nearby master event. After detecting the weak events, we use a transformed spectrogram
method to identify the phase arrivals. We have tested the technique on a downhole
monitoring dataset of the microseismic events induced by hydraulic fracturing. We show
that, for this case, one event with a signal-to-noise ratio around 6dB, which is barely
detectable using an array-stacked short-time average/long-time average (STA/LTA)
detector under a reasonable false alarm rate, is readily detected on the array-stacked
correlation traces. The transformed spectrogram analysis of the detected events improves
P and S phase picking.
Date issued
2010Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earth Resources Laboratory
Series/Report no.
Earth Resources Laboratory Industry Consortia Annual Report;2010-12
Keywords
Microseismic