Hazards SEES: The Risk Landscape of Earthquakes Induced by Deep Wastewater Injection

灾害 SEES：深层废水注入引发地震的风险景观

• 批准号: 1520846
• 负责人: Abbie Liel
• 金额: $ 260.7万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1520846&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Hazards; SEES; Risk; Landscape; Earthquakes

Non-technical SummaryThe United States is experiencing a major expansion of domestic oil and gas production. These activities involve large amounts of water, both in hydraulic fracturing and in reservoir production, and the energy boom has been accompanied by a major increase in wastewater disposal by injection. There is growing evidence that wastewater injection can generate earthquakes under certain conditions. For example, injection-induced earthquakes are thought to be responsible for the increase of earthquakes in some places, like Oklahoma, which in 2014 experienced a greater number of earthquakes larger than Magnitude 3 than California. Although there is much ongoing research related to the potential impacts of the increased oil and gas production on water and air quality, little work has been done to understand how injection wells affect seismic risk, creating substantial uncertainty for communities, industry, and regulators. The CU Collaboratory for Induced Seismicity (CCIS) is developing the geoscience, social science, and engineering understanding, models, and methods needed to quantify risks associated with injection-induced earthquakes and to evaluate strategies for sustainably managing and mitigating these risks.This research is providing vital knowledge to local communities, regulators, and the oil and gas industry, including guidance documents on seismic monitoring; a science-based model regulation that can help guide state and local regulatory decisions; and seismic risk tools for use by industry, insurers, and others. This information may be used to manage risks associated with injection-induced seismicity to foster more sustainable development of energy. The project involves an External Advisory Board, composed of representatives from regulatory agencies, industry, and academia. This group helps the research team develop products and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and products to key decision makers. The project is also providing a cohort of graduate students and postdocs with the skills to bridge across disciplines to create scientific tools to model and evaluate the risks associated with induced earthquakes and to better communicate these risks. The team has a high representation of women in science and engineering, which is being leveraged to recruit and mentor underrepresented students.Technical DescriptionCCIS is probing the mechanisms by which injection wells induce earthquakes, the potential for these earthquakes to cause damage to the built environment, and the social and economic impacts of induced earthquakes. This project is expanding our knowledge of the complex interactions of the natural (Theme I), built (Theme II), and human (Theme III) environments in the creation and management of induced seismicity. In Theme I, we are conducting seismic monitoring and analysis of satellite measurements of surface deformations around injection wells and developing hydromechanical models. Our research in Theme II is focusing on new fragility and hazard models to proactively assess the risk of induced ground shaking to structures and infrastructure, and is exploring how monitoring and other regulatory actions impacts risk. In our Theme III, we are examining how induced seismicity is reflected in community risk perceptions, knowledge sharing networks, and stresses; we are also creating a comprehensive catalog of regulatory alternatives pursued by different states. Our research is grounded in four case study communities in Colorado and Texas.Our research presents a holistic study of earthquakes induced by deep wastewater injection, linking fluid flow, earthquake initiation, and ground shaking characteristics to probabilistic models for damage to infrastructure and connecting all this work with social science research on community impacts with respect to risk perceptions, social cohesion, and knowledge sharing networks. We are investigating current regulations on induced seismicity, and examining how regulations impact and respond to geoscience, engineering, and community processes. We are accomplishing our goals through in situ and participatory empirical research and design, combined with data collection from seismological and satellite instruments and multi-scale models. In doing so, our research is transforming our understanding of the sustainability of the coupled natural-human-physical systems that affect and are affected by earthquakes induced by deep wastewater injection, which in turn enables new approaches for mitigating and managing these risks.

美国国内石油和天然气生产正在大幅扩张。这些活动涉及大量的水，无论是在水力压裂还是在油藏生产中，能源繁荣伴随着注入废水处理的大量增加。越来越多的证据表明，在某些条件下，废水注入会引发地震。例如，注入诱发的地震被认为是造成某些地方地震增加的原因，比如俄克拉荷马州，2014年发生的3级以上地震数量超过了加州。虽然有很多正在进行的研究有关的潜在影响，增加石油和天然气生产对水和空气质量，很少有工作已经做了了解如何注入威尔斯影响地震风险，创造了社区，行业和监管机构的重大不确定性。CU诱发地震合作实验室（CCIS）正在开发地球科学、社会科学和工程学知识、模型和方法，以量化与注入诱发地震相关的风险，并评估可持续管理和减轻这些风险的战略。这项研究正在为当地社区、监管机构和石油天然气行业提供重要知识，包括地震监测指导文件;一个以科学为基础的监管模式，可以帮助指导国家和地方的监管决策;和地震风险工具，供行业，保险公司和其他人使用。这些信息可用于管理与注入诱发的地震活动相关的风险，以促进能源的更可持续发展。该项目涉及一个外部咨询委员会，由监管机构、工业界和学术界的代表组成。该小组帮助研究团队开发产品，并促进向关键决策者转移知识和产品。该项目还为一批研究生和博士后提供跨学科的技能，以创建科学工具来建模和评估与诱发地震相关的风险，并更好地传达这些风险。该团队在科学和工程领域有很高的女性代表性，这正被利用来招募和指导代表性不足的学生。技术说明CCIS正在探索注入威尔斯诱发地震的机制，这些地震对建筑环境造成破坏的可能性，以及诱发地震的社会和经济影响。这个项目是扩大我们的自然（主题一），建成（主题二）和人类（主题三）在诱发地震活动的创建和管理环境的复杂相互作用的知识。在专题一中，我们正在进行地震监测和分析卫星对注入威尔斯井周围地表变形的测量，并建立流体力学模型。我们在主题II的研究重点是新的脆弱性和危险模型，以主动评估结构和基础设施诱发地面震动的风险，并正在探索监测和其他监管行动如何影响风险。 在我们的主题III中，我们正在研究诱发地震活动如何反映在社区风险认知，知识共享网络和压力中;我们还创建了一个由不同国家追求的监管替代方案的综合目录。我们的研究以科罗拉多和得克萨斯州的四个案例研究社区为基础，提出了一个由深层污水注入引起的地震的整体研究，将流体流动、地震引发和地面震动特征与基础设施损坏的概率模型联系起来，并将所有这些工作与社会科学研究联系起来，研究社区对风险认知、社会凝聚力和知识共享网络的影响。我们正在调查诱发地震活动的现行法规，并研究法规如何影响和应对地球科学，工程和社区进程。我们正在通过现场和参与性的经验研究和设计，结合从地震和卫星仪器以及多尺度模型收集的数据，实现我们的目标。在这样做的过程中，我们的研究正在改变我们对自然-人类-物理耦合系统的可持续性的理解，这些系统影响并受到深层废水注入引起的地震的影响，这反过来又使减轻和管理这些风险的新方法成为可能。