Waveform Cross-Correlation for Improved North Texas Earthquake Locations

Abstract:

In November 2013, a sequence of earthquakes began in Reno and Azle, TX, two communities located northwest of Fort Worth in an area of active oil and gas extraction. Only one felt earthquake had been reported within the area before the occurrence of probable injection-induced earthquakes at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport in 2008. The USGS National Earthquakes Information Center (NEIC) has reported 27 felt earthquakes in the Reno-Azle area through January 28, 2014. A temporary seismic network was installed beginning in December 2013 to acquire data to improve location and magnitude estimates and characterize the earthquake sequence. Here, we present high-resolution relative earthquake locations derived using differential time data from waveform cross-correlation. Cross-correlation is computed using the GISMO software suite and event relocation is done using double difference relocation techniques. Waveform cross-correlation of the local data indicates high (>70%) similarity between 4 major swarms of events lasting between 18 and 24 hours. These swarms are temporal zones of high event frequency; 1.4% of the time series data accounts for 42.1% of the identified local earthquakes. Local earthquakes are occurring along the Newark East Fault System, a NE-SW striking normal fault system previously thought inactive at depths between 2 and 8 km in the Ellenburger limestone formation and underlying Precambrian basement. Data analysis is ongoing and continued characterization of the associated fault will provide improved location estimates.