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Seismicity in Sichuan, Southwestern China, 2009-2019: Interaction of Hydraulic Fracturing Induced Earthquakes Characterized by the Nearest-Neighbor Distance Approach

Description: 

Earthquake interaction, which is critical to understanding the nucleation and rupture process of induced earthquakes, has not been fully studied. We applied the Nearest-Neighbor Distance clustering approach to the seismicity of the Sichuan Region to investigate the interaction between Hydraulic Fracturing (HF) induced seismicity inside the Sichuan Basin and compare them with the tectonic seismicity in the surrounding regions. Background seismic rate and cluster types are measured after separating the background events and earthquake clusters. We found that seismicity inside the Sichuan Basin shows a high background seismic rate. Many clusters with a mainshock magnitude greater than 4.0 have complex structures with foreshocks referring to a multi-stage rupture process. In addition, many complex clusters have multi-stage foreshocks, which manifest a cascading nucleation process. Three attributes are used to better describe the features of the complex clusters. We find many earthquake clusters inside the Sichuan basin deviated from an aftershock sequence and show swarm-like features. The commonly observed earthquake swarms in induced seismicity regions may result from cascading nucleation and rupture processes on complex fault systems. We conclude that earthquake interaction plays an important role in inducing earthquakes in the Sichuan Basin and should be considered in the future induced earthquake rupture model and risk estimation.

Session: From Physics to Forecasts: Advancements and Future Directions of Induced Seismicity Research [Poster]

Type: Poster

Date: 4/15/2025

Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Yangtianli

Student Presenter: Yes

Invited Presentation: 

Poster Number: 108

Authors