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Title: Seasonal and Long‐Term Groundwater Unloading in the Central Valley Modifies Crustal Stress

Abstract

The earth responds elastically to changes in surface mass such that when mass is added, there is regional sinking of the land surface and when mass is lost, there is regional uplift. These mass changes can disturb the regional stress field, which in turn, may influence earthquake activity. The pattern of these disturbances, though, is controlled by the weight and area of the mass that is applied. Here we consider the mass loss and gain associated with groundwater withdrawal and recharge in California's Central Valley. This allows us to isolate the loading contribution due to groundwater storage change, which is primarily driven by pumping activity in the Central Valley, from that of other hydrologic components and quantify its contribution to stress. In isolating the groundwater component, we can show to what extent human pumping activities on both seasonal and long-term timescales are disturbing crustal stress and possibly influencing seismic hazard. We show that seasonal groundwater loss does increase stress along faults in California.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. School of Earth and Space Exploration Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA
  2. School of Earth and Space Exploration Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA
  3. School of Earth and Space Exploration Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA, Department of Earth and Planetary Science University of California Berkeley CA USA
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1597556
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1592528; OSTI ID: 1803679
Grant/Contract Number:  
DE‐SC0019307; SC0019307
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth Journal Volume: 125 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-9313
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; Geochemistry & Geophysics

Citation Formats

Carlson, G., Shirzaei, M., Werth, S., Zhai, G., and Ojha, C. Seasonal and Long‐Term Groundwater Unloading in the Central Valley Modifies Crustal Stress. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1029/2019JB018490.
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Carlson, G., Shirzaei, M., Werth, S., Zhai, G., & Ojha, C. Seasonal and Long‐Term Groundwater Unloading in the Central Valley Modifies Crustal Stress. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JB018490
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Carlson, G., Shirzaei, M., Werth, S., Zhai, G., and Ojha, C. Mon . "Seasonal and Long‐Term Groundwater Unloading in the Central Valley Modifies Crustal Stress". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JB018490.
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@article{osti_1597556,
title = {Seasonal and Long‐Term Groundwater Unloading in the Central Valley Modifies Crustal Stress},
author = {Carlson, G. and Shirzaei, M. and Werth, S. and Zhai, G. and Ojha, C.},
abstractNote = {The earth responds elastically to changes in surface mass such that when mass is added, there is regional sinking of the land surface and when mass is lost, there is regional uplift. These mass changes can disturb the regional stress field, which in turn, may influence earthquake activity. The pattern of these disturbances, though, is controlled by the weight and area of the mass that is applied. Here we consider the mass loss and gain associated with groundwater withdrawal and recharge in California's Central Valley. This allows us to isolate the loading contribution due to groundwater storage change, which is primarily driven by pumping activity in the Central Valley, from that of other hydrologic components and quantify its contribution to stress. In isolating the groundwater component, we can show to what extent human pumping activities on both seasonal and long-term timescales are disturbing crustal stress and possibly influencing seismic hazard. We show that seasonal groundwater loss does increase stress along faults in California.},
doi = {10.1029/2019JB018490},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth},
number = 1,
volume = 125,
place = {United States},
year = {2020},
month = {1}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JB018490
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