Seismic studies of a massive hydraulic fracturing experiment

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5500201

House, L; Keppler, H; Kaieda, H

During a massive hydraulic fracturing experiment carried out at Fenton Hill, New Mexico, 850 microearthquakes, ranging in magnitudes from -3 to 0, were located reliably using arrival times recorded at a set of 5 downhole geophone stations. A subset of these events were located using an upgraded hodogram technique. The seismicity defines a tabular zone with horizontal extent of 900 m, vertical extent of 800 m, and thickness of 150 m. This zone strikes N340/sup 0/E, and dips 75/sup 0/ to the east; its position indicates that no hydraulic connection between the two predrilled wells could be achieved by the fracturing. The distribution of locations obtained from arrival times shows good agreement with those derived from hodograms. Well constrained fault plane solutions were determined for 26 of the larger microearthquakes observed at a surface seismic net. Most solutions display one nearly vertical nodal plane that strikes close to N - S, and a T axis that trends roughly E - W, in agreement with regional indicators of the least principal stress direction. 9 refs., 6 figs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA); Bundesanstalt fuer Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover (Germany, F.R.); Central Research Inst. of Electric Power Industry, Abiko, Chiba (Japan)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5500201
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-85-933; CONF-850801-15; ON: DE85010109
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
COMMINUTION
DATA
EARTHQUAKES
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FEDERAL REGION VI
FRACTURING
GEOTHERMAL SYSTEMS
GEOTHERMAL WELLS
Geothermal Legacy
HOT-DRY-ROCK SYSTEMS
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
HYPOCENTERS
INFORMATION
MICROEARTHQUAKES
NEW MEXICO
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
SEISMIC EFFECTS
SEISMIC EVENTS
USA
WELLS