Chet Hopp edited Past_work_Microseismicity_has_been__.md  almost 8 years ago

Commit id: 47f07a166f4407567aba2f26f4f9bccd20227c0a

deletions | additions      

       

#Past work #Known seismicity  Microseismicity has been observed at Rotokawa since the start of deep injection in 2005 \cite{Sherburn_2015} and at Ngatamariki since injection operations began in 2012 \cite{Sherburn&Bourguignon_2013}. Some of this activity is accounted for by background, natural seismicity associated with the geothermal fields' location within the tectonically dynamic TVZ. However, a much larger part of the microseismicity at Ngatamariki and Rotokawa is due to changes in the reservoir associated with deep fluid injection. Critically stressed and favourably oriented fractures within and adjacent to the geothermal resource can be activated by both pressure changes induced by power plant operations as well as thermal contraction of the hot reservoir rocks as the cooler condensate and brine is injected \cite{Sherburn_2015}.  At Rotokawa, the largest portion of microseismiciy since 2012 has been located in the southeast portion of the field as discussed in \cite{Sherburn_2015}, within the polygon shown in \ref{Figure2}. Much of this seismicity is likely related to the Central Field Fault which divides the injection and production areas at Rotokawa and acts as a barrier to cross-strike movement of reservoir fluids \cite{Sherburn_2015}.   At Ngatamariki, two very distinct, distinct  clusters of microseismicity are observed, one in the North of the field and one further south \cite{Sherburn&Bourguignon_2013} \cite{Sherburn&Bourguignon_2014} \cite{Sherburn&Bourguignon_2015}. The northern cluster has been observed in the northern injection area surrounding wells NM8 and NM9 at a between 1.5 and 2.5 km below sea level whereas the southern cluster is generally located between the injection area associated with NM10 and NM6 and the production area for the field surrounding NM5 \cite{Sherburn&Bourguignon_2015}. This is likely associated with a structure related to the Aratiatia Fault Zone which strikes SW-NE accross the southern end of the Ngatamariki field as has been modeled by \cite{buscarlet2015reservoir}. Events have been observed in roughly equal numbers in both clusters \cite{Sherburn&Bourguignon_2013}.