资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Pressure diffusion from high-volume saltwater disposal wells near the Kansas-Oklahoma border appears to have contributed to triggering earthquakes as far as 90km away. Elevated seismicity that began in southern Kansas in 2013 is largely believed to be induced by pore pressure increase from dozens of disposal wells injecting unprecedented volumes. Earthquakes initially occurred in dense swarms near the wells, and in subsequent years migrated into surrounding areas with minimal fluid injection. By 2017, earthquakes advanced 90km from areas surrounding the high-volume injection wells into areas with considerable fluid injection volumes but historically consistent rates. Fluid pressure within the injection interval in southern Kansas increased subsequent to high-volume saltwater disposal in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma. Temporal pressure trends across central Kansas suggest that fluid migration and pressure diffusion from cumulative disposal to the south likely induced earthquakes much farther than previously documented for individual injection wells.

Plain Language Summary Fluid injected deep underground is known to cause faults to slip under certain conditions, inducing an earthquake. Published cases of injection-induced seismic activity typically involve only one or at most a few wells injecting large volumes of fluid. An increase in pore pressure caused by fluid injected in one or a few wells is usually large enough to trigger earthquakes only a short distance from the injection point, typically within about 10 km. Beginning in 2012, dozens of disposal wells have injected an unprecedented volume of fluid near the Kansas-Oklahoma border in the central United States. In the years since injection began, seismic activity advanced increasingly beyond the initial earthquake swarms near the causal injection wells. Increasing deep fluid pressure measured across central Kansas suggests that fluid and associated pore pressure increases related to injection near the southern Kansas border migrated and contributed to inducing earthquakes as far as 90 km from the injection point, much farther than previously documented.