Acoustic monitoring of co-seismic changes in gas bubble rupture rate in a hydrothermal reservoir: field evaluation of a possible precursor and mechanism for remote seismic triggering

Abstract:

Remotely triggered seismicity is a phenomenon in which an earthquake at one location triggers others over distances up to thousands of kilometers. The mechanism by which low-amplitude dynamic oscillations of the confining stress can produce such an effect, often after a time delay of minutes-to-days, is unclear, but a concentration of remotely triggered seismic events in carbon-dioxide-rich volcanic and geothermal regions suggests that an increase in pore fluid pressure associated with the nucleation and growth of carbon-dioxide gas bubbles may reduce the effective stress in critically loaded geologic faults. While this hypothesis has been tested in bench-scale laboratory experiments, field detection of seismically initiated gas bubble growth in groundwater may provide further evidence for this remote triggering mechanism. In the present study, a hydrophone continuously records the acoustic power spectrum in CH-10B, a hydrothermal well located in Long Valley Caldera, California – a site that is susceptible to remotely seismic triggering. This well exhibits co-seismic changes in water level in response to near and distant earthquakes, including every magnitude-six or greater at any location on Earth. Exploiting the inverse relationship between gas bubble radius and the peak acoustic frequency emitted when a gas bubble ruptures, this investigation seeks to detect changes in the acoustic power spectrum arising from a shift in the size-distribution or count rate of rupturing gas bubbles, coincident with a distant earthquake. By resolving the timing and intensity of the onset of a change in gas bubble rupture rate after the passage of seismic wave from a distant source, it may be possible to establish the extent to which seismically initiated gas bubble growth contributes to co-seismic borehole water level response, pore fluid pressure perturbations, and the onset of remotely triggered seismicity.