The Groundbreaking Experiment in Earthquake Control at Rangely, Colorado, Revisited

Abstract

©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Earthquakes caused by human activities are a growing societal concern. A pioneering study of induced seismicity in the 1970s involved cooperation between the U.S. Geological Survey and Chevron, Inc., to adjust operations in the Rangely oil field, Colorado, to initiate and control earthquakes. Here we revisit this experiment using coupled flow and geomechanical modeling to determine the physical mechanisms that caused these earthquakes and investigate the strength and state of stress acting on the fault that sourced them. The controlled nature of the Rangely experiment, combined with data from decades of field operations, presents a unique opportunity to understand the phenomenon of induced seismicity in ways that can be applied to manage these risks.