A 3-Dimensional P-Wave Tomography Model of the Pecos, Texas Region of the Delaware Basin
With increasing earthquakes in the Delaware Basin since 2009, earthquake studies, including accurate hypocenters, are critically needed in the Delaware Basin to identify the structures producing earthquakes, and to determine if they are related to unconventional petroleum development and production. In 2018, with funding from the Texas Seismological Network (TexNet), the University of Texas at El Paso deployed and maintained a network of 25 Magseis Fairfield Z-Land Generation 2 5-Hz seismic nodes in the Pecos, Texas region of the Delaware Basin, known as The Pecos Array. The network was deployed from November 2018 until the beginning of January 2020, with an additional two months of data recorded in September and October 2020. The network collected continuous 3-component data with a 1000-Hz sampling rate. The spacing of the nodes varied from ~2 km in town to ~10 km farther away from the city center. The Pecos Array was used to conduct a local 3-D P-wave tomography study in the Pecos, Texas region using the SIMULPS software. Previous tomography studies have been conducted to derive a P-wave velocity model of the entire Permian Basin, but these studies covered a broader area, and their best velocity results were in the upper 35 km of the crust. With our denser array, localized earthquakes, and increased ray coverage in the Pecos, Texas area, we have created a detailed 3-D velocity model for the top 8 km of this region. We observe velocity values that are consistent with reported geologies in the basin, and slower velocities on faults compared to areas without faults. We found that our new model is ~25% slower between depths 2 – 6 km compared to the DB1D regional velocity model that TexNet uses to locate their public catalog.
Session: Induced Earthquakes: Source Characteristics, Mechanisms, Stress Field Modeling and Hazards [Poster Session]
Type: Poster
Room: Exhibit Hall
Date: 5/1/2024
Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)
Presenting Author: Jenna Faith
Student Presenter: No
Additional Authors
Jenna Faith Presenting Author Corresponding Author jfaith@lanl.gov Los Alamos National Laboratory |
Marianne Karplus mkarplus@utep.edu University of Texas at El Paso |
Diane Doser doser@utep.edu University of Texas at El Paso |
Alexandros Savvaidis alexandros.savvaidis@beg.utexas.edu University of Texas at Austin |
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A 3-Dimensional P-Wave Tomography Model of the Pecos, Texas Region of the Delaware Basin
Session
Induced Earthquakes: Source Characteristics, Mechanisms, Stress Field Modeling and Hazards
Description