Seismicity and coupled deformation modeling at the Coso Geothermal Field

Abstract:

Micro-seismicity in geothermal reservoirs, in particular in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), is a beneficial byproduct of injection and production, as it can indicate the generation of high-permeability pathways on either pre-existing or newly generated faults and fractures. The hazard of inducing an earthquake large enough to be felt at the surface, however, is not easily avoided and has led to termination of some EGS projects. To explore the physical processes leading to permeability creation and maintenance in geothermal systems and the physics of induced earthquakes , we investigated the evolution of seismicity and the factors controlling the migration, moment release rate, and timing of seismicity in the Coso Geothermal Field (CGF). We report on seismicity in the CGF that has been relocated with high precision double-difference relocation techniques and simultaneous velocity inversions to understand hydrologic reservoir compartmentalization and the nature of subsurface boundaries to fluid flow. We find that two distinct compartments are present within the CGF, which are divided by an aseismic gap showing a relatively low Vp/Vs ratio, likely indicating lower temperatures or lower pore pressures within the gap than in the adjacent reservoir compartments. Well-located events with Mw> 3.5 tend to map onto reactivated fault structures that were revealed when imaged by the relocated micro-seismicity. We relate the temporal and spatial migration of moment release rate to the injection and production histories in the reservoir by employing a thermo-poro-elastic finite element model that takes into account the compartment boundaries defined by the seismicity. We find that pore pressure effects alone are not responsible for the migration of seismicity and that poro-elastic and thermo-elastic stress changes are needed in addition to fluid pressure effects to account for the observed moment release rates.