Effects of the distribution and evolution of the coefficient of friction along a fault on the assessment of the seismic activity associated with a hypothetical industrial-scale geologic CO2 sequestration operation

Jeanne, Pierre; Rutqvist, Jonny; Foxall, William; Rinaldi, Antonio Pio; Wainwright, Haruko M.; Zhou, Quanlin; Birkholzer, Jens; Layland-Bachmann, Corinne

doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.09.018

Title: Effects of the distribution and evolution of the coefficient of friction along a fault on the assessment of the seismic activity associated with a hypothetical industrial-scale geologic CO₂ sequestration operation

Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) in geological formations is considered as a promising option that could limit CO₂ emissions from human activities into the atmosphere. However, there is a risk that pressure buildup inside the storage formation can induce slip along preexisting faults and create seismic event felt by the population. To prevent this to happen a geomechanical fault stability analysis should be performed, considering uncertainties of input parameters. In this paper, we investigate how the distribution of the coefficient of friction and the applied frictional law could influence the assessment of fault stability and the characteristics of potential injection-induced seismic events. Our modelling study is based on a hypothetical industrial-scale carbon sequestration project located in the Southern San Joaquin Basin in California, USA, where the stability on a major (25 km long) fault that bounds the sequestration site is assessed during 50 years of CO₂ injection. We conduct nine simulations in which the distributions of the coefficients of static and dynamic friction are changed to simulate a hardening and softening phase before and during rupture. Here, our main findings are: (i) variations in friction along the fault have an important effect on the predicted seismic activity, with maximum magnitudemore »« less

Authors:

Jeanne, Pierre ^[1]; Rutqvist, Jonny ^[1]; Foxall, William ^[1]; Rinaldi, Antonio Pio ^[2]; Wainwright, Haruko M. ^[1]; Zhou, Quanlin ^[1]; Birkholzer, Jens ^[1]; Layland-Bachmann, Corinne ^[1]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Energy Geoscience Division
Federal Inst. of Technology, Zurich (Switzerland). Swiss Seismological Service

Publication Date:: Tue Oct 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017

Research Org.:: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)

OSTI Identifier:: 1506281

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1496436

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; PZENP2_160555

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 66; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 1750-5836

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 58 GEOSCIENCES

Citation Formats


                    Jeanne, Pierre, Rutqvist, Jonny, Foxall, William, Rinaldi, Antonio Pio, Wainwright, Haruko M., Zhou, Quanlin, Birkholzer, Jens, and Layland-Bachmann, Corinne. Effects of the distribution and evolution of the coefficient of friction along a fault on the assessment of the seismic activity associated with a hypothetical industrial-scale geologic CO2 sequestration operation.  United States: N. p., 2017. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.09.018.

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                    Jeanne, Pierre, Rutqvist, Jonny, Foxall, William, Rinaldi, Antonio Pio, Wainwright, Haruko M., Zhou, Quanlin, Birkholzer, Jens, & Layland-Bachmann, Corinne. Effects of the distribution and evolution of the coefficient of friction along a fault on the assessment of the seismic activity associated with a hypothetical industrial-scale geologic CO2 sequestration operation.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.09.018

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                    Jeanne, Pierre, Rutqvist, Jonny, Foxall, William, Rinaldi, Antonio Pio, Wainwright, Haruko M., Zhou, Quanlin, Birkholzer, Jens, and Layland-Bachmann, Corinne. Tue .  
"Effects of the distribution and evolution of the coefficient of friction along a fault on the assessment of the seismic activity associated with a hypothetical industrial-scale geologic CO2 sequestration operation".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.09.018.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1506281.

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@article{osti_1506281,

  title        = {Effects of the distribution and evolution of the coefficient of friction along a fault on the assessment of the seismic activity associated with a hypothetical industrial-scale geologic CO2 sequestration operation},

  author       = {Jeanne, Pierre and Rutqvist, Jonny and Foxall, William and Rinaldi, Antonio Pio and Wainwright, Haruko M. and Zhou, Quanlin and Birkholzer, Jens and Layland-Bachmann, Corinne},

  abstractNote = {Carbon capture and storage (CCS) in geological formations is considered as a promising option that could limit CO2 emissions from human activities into the atmosphere. However, there is a risk that pressure buildup inside the storage formation can induce slip along preexisting faults and create seismic event felt by the population. To prevent this to happen a geomechanical fault stability analysis should be performed, considering uncertainties of input parameters. In this paper, we investigate how the distribution of the coefficient of friction and the applied frictional law could influence the assessment of fault stability and the characteristics of potential injection-induced seismic events. Our modelling study is based on a hypothetical industrial-scale carbon sequestration project located in the Southern San Joaquin Basin in California, USA, where the stability on a major (25 km long) fault that bounds the sequestration site is assessed during 50 years of CO2 injection. We conduct nine simulations in which the distributions of the coefficients of static and dynamic friction are changed to simulate a hardening and softening phase before and during rupture. Here, our main findings are: (i) variations in friction along the fault have an important effect on the predicted seismic activity, with maximum magnitude ranging from 1.88 to 5.88 and number of seismic events ranging from 338 to 3272; (ii) the extreme values of the coefficient of friction (lowest and highest) present along the rupture area control how much stress is accumulated before rupture; and (iii) an argillaceous caprock can prevent the development of large magnitude seismic events but favor the occurrence of a large number of smaller events.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.09.018},

  journal      = {International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 66,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue Oct 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017},

  month        = {Tue Oct 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017}

}

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Fig. 1: Geological cross section the Southern San Joaquin Basin (from Wagoner, 2009).

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Title: Effects of the distribution and evolution of the coefficient of friction along a fault on the assessment of the seismic activity associated with a hypothetical industrial-scale geologic CO2 sequestration operation

Abstract

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Title: Effects of the distribution and evolution of the coefficient of friction along a fault on the assessment of the seismic activity associated with a hypothetical industrial-scale geologic CO₂ sequestration operation