No geologic evidence that seismicity causes fault leakage that would render large-scale carbon capture and storage unsuccessful

Abstract

In a recent Perspective (1), Zoback and Gorelick argued that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is likely not a viable strategy for reducing CO[subscript 2] emissions to the atmosphere. They argued that maps of earthquake epicenters portray earthquakes occurring almost everywhere, suggesting that Earth’s crust is near a critical state, so that increments in fluid pressure from injecting CO[subscript 2] at 1 to 3 km depth will likely trigger earthquakes within the reservoir and caprock that would be expected to result in leakage of CO[subscript 2] from the reservoirs to the surface.