Were the May 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquakes induced? A coupled flow-geomechanics modeling assessment
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Author(s)
Shaw, J. H.
Plesch, A.
Astiz, L.
Dieterich, J. H.
Frohlich, C.
Juanes, Ruben
Jha, Birendra
Hager, Bradford H
Date Issued
July 2016
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)/Wiley
Citation
Juanes, R., B. Jha, B. H. Hager,et al. “Were the May 2012 Emilia-Romagna Earthquakes Induced? A Coupled Flow-Geomechanics Modeling Assessment.” Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 43, no. 13, 2016, pp. 6891-6897. © 2016 American Geophysical Union.
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Final published version
Abstract
Seismicity induced by fluid injection and withdrawal has emerged as a central element of the scientific discussion around subsurface technologies that tap into water and energy resources. Here we present the application of coupled flow-geomechanics simulation technology to the post mortem analysis of a sequence of damaging earthquakes (Mw = 6.0 and 5.8) in May 2012 near the Cavone oil field, in northern Italy. This sequence raised the question of whether these earthquakes might have been triggered by activities due to oil and gas production. Our analysis strongly suggests that the combined effects of fluid production and injection from the Cavone field were not a driver for the observed seismicity. More generally, our study illustrates that computational modeling of coupled flow and geomechanics permits the integration of geologic, seismotectonic, well log, fluid pressure and flow rate, and geodetic data and provides a promising approach for assessing and managing hazards associated with induced seismicity.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069284
