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Seismicity at the Coso Geothermal Field: Past and Present Applications

Description: 

The Navy’s Geothermal Program Office (GPO) has been maintaining and operating a subsurface, 16-station, short-period seismometer array in the Coso geothermal field (CGF) since the mid-1990s. It was installed to assess seismicity triggered by the removal and reinjection of mass from this 270 MWe installed capacity field (Monastero, 2005). Over the years, multiple studies using this very large micro-earthquake (Meq) catalogue (~294,000 events) have included relocating earthquakes through various techniques (Lees, 1998; Foulger et al., 2008), evaluating siesmogenic deformation and structures (Unruh, 2007; Hauksson and Unruh, 2007; Kaven et al., 2012; Kaven et al., 2013), assessing time-dependent tomography (Julian et al., 2006; Mhana et al., 2018) and differentiating production-related (induced) from tectonic earthquake events (Schoenball et al., 2015). Evaluating seismic triggering and quiescence in and around Coso after the large July 2019 M6.4 and M7.1 earthquakes centered 30 km to the SE of Coso has been the focus of many recent workers (Kroll et al. 2021, Kaven, 2020). Since 2020, we have been building the first, static geologic conceptual model of the CGF in Leapfrog Geothermal subsurface software (Blake et al., 2021; Zimmerman et al., 2022). This has required a reevaluation and assessment of structures, most of which are interpreted through well data, prior geologic mapping and now, Meq data. A robust geologic model can do many things including informing the evolving CGF reservoir model, assist with an ongoing evaluation of a deep, supercritical resource and assist with water management and operations.

Session: Seismology for the Energy Transition

Type: Oral

Date: 4/18/2023

Presentation Time: 05:30 PM (local time)

Presenting Author: Stephanie Nale

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: Yes

Authors