A Hydrofracturing-Triggered Earthquake Occurred Three Years after the Stimulation

Stanisław Lasocki, Łukasz Rudziński, Antek K. Tokarski and Beata Orlecka-Sikora
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Stanisław Lasocki: Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland
Łukasz Rudziński: Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland
Antek K. Tokarski: Research Centre in Krakow, Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Senacka 1, 31-002 Krakow, Poland
Beata Orlecka-Sikora: Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Hydrofracturing, used for shale gas exploitation, may induce felt, even damaging earthquakes. On 15 June 2019, an M w 2.8 earthquake occurred, spatially correlated with the location of earlier exploratory hydrofracturing operations for shale gas in Wysin in Poland. However, this earthquake was atypical. Hydrofracturing-triggered seismicity mainly occurs during stimulation; occasionally, it continues a few months after completion of the stimulation. In Wysin, there were only two weaker events during two-month hydrofracturing and then 35 months of seismic silence until the mentioned earthquake occurred. The Wysin site is in Gdańsk Pomerania broader region, located on the very weakly seismically active Precambrian Platform. The historical documents, covering 1000 years, report no natural earthquakes in Gdańsk Pomerania. We conclude, therefore, that despite the never observed before that long lag time after stimulation, the M w 2.8 earthquake was triggered by hydrofracturing. It is possible that its unusually late occurrence in relation to the time of its triggering technological activity was caused by changes in stresses due to time-dependent deformation of reservoir shales. The Wysin earthquake determines a new time horizon for the effect of HF on the stress state, which can lead to triggering earthquakes. Time-dependent deformation and its induced stress changes should be considered in shall gas reservoir exploitation plans.

Keywords: hydrofracturing; injection-induced seismicity; shale gas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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