Pushing the limit of earthquake detection with distributed acoustic sensing and template matching: a case study at the Brady geothermal field

Li, Zefeng; Zhan, Zhongwen

doi:10.1093/gji/ggy359

Title: Pushing the limit of earthquake detection with distributed acoustic sensing and template matching: a case study at the Brady geothermal field

Journal Article · Mon Sep 03 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Geophysical Journal International

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggy359· OSTI ID:1469719

^[1]; Zhan, Zhongwen ^[1]

Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

Template matching has been widely applied in the detection of earthquakes and other seismic events due to its power in detecting weak signals. Recent studies using synthetics have shown that application of template matching to large-N arrays can potentially detect earthquakes substantially below the noise level. Here we apply template matching to the distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) data recorded in the Brady Hot Springs geothermal field, Nevada. Using 5 catalogued events, we detect 116 events and find 68 of them well below the noise level. We confirm 112 events are true earthquakes by examining the patterns of their sensor-to-sensor cross-correlation sections. This demonstrates that the combination of DAS and template matching has capability to detect microseismicity below the noise level, which is unusual for conventional seismic arrays and methods. With the updated catalogue, we observe a surge of earthquakes during the shutdown of a geothermal power plant nearby. In addition, the rapid increases in the downhole pressure record coincide with intense swarms of earthquakes. These observations show a strong correlation between the seismicity frequencies and the downhole pressure changes. Finally, we investigate several factors that may affect the detection performance and compare different strategies for spatial down-sampling, in order to provide helpful insights for future large-N design and data processing.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0006760; 1722879

OSTI ID:: 1469719

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1613386

Journal Information:: Geophysical Journal International, Journal Name: Geophysical Journal International Vol. 215 Journal Issue: 3; ISSN 0956-540X

Publisher:: Oxford University PressCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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Cited by: 39 works

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The Potential of DAS in Teleseismic Studies: Insights From the Goldstone Experiment Yu, Chunquan; Zhan, Zhongwen; Lindsey, Nathaniel J. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl081195	journal	February 2019
Distributed sensing of microseisms and teleseisms with submarine dark fibers Williams, Ethan F.; Fernández-Ruiz, María R.; Magalhaes, Regina Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13262-7	journal	December 2019
Distributed Acoustic Sensing Using Dark Fiber for Near-Surface Characterization and Broadband Seismic Event Detection Ajo-Franklin, Jonathan B.; Dou, Shan; Lindsey, Nathaniel J. Scientific Reports, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36675-8	journal	February 2019

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Title: Pushing the limit of earthquake detection with distributed acoustic sensing and template matching: a case study at the Brady geothermal field

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