Study of tectonic fault transition from aseismic to seismic slip due to fluid injection
- 1Sadovsky Institute of Geosphere Dynamics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Geomechanics and Fluid Dynamics, Moscow, Russian Federation (s.turuntaev@gmail.com)
- 2All-Russian Research Institute of Automatics, Moscow, Russian Federation
The conditions for the transition from slow slip to seismic generation motion along a tectonic fault as a result of fluid injection through a well located near the fault are studied.
Movements along the fault caused by fluid injection can occur in the form of slow slips or lead to earthquakes. The implementation of a particular type of movement is dependent on the injection parameters and the fault friction and stress conditions. Numerical calculations were performed in which the consequences of fluid injection lasting from 1.5 months to 6 years were modeled. The calculations varied the total volume of the injected fluid, the flow rate during injection, the rate-state friction law properties of the fault, tangential stresses on the fault. It was found that under certain combinations of fault parameters and fluid flow, seismic generations occur. The transition to such a mode within the framework of the considered model occurs abruptly, a further increase in the injection rate does not lead to an increase in the rate of seismic movement, reaching values of 0.1-1 m/sec, depending on tectonic tangential stresses.
With fixed parameters of the rate-state friction law, the magnitude of the maximum displacement velocity depends on the rate of the pressure perturbation on the fault. Until the sliding velocity reaches a value of the order of 10-6 m/sec, the dependence of the logarithm of the sliding velocity on the rate of the pressure perturbation is linear or close to it, then there is a significant more dramatic increase in sliding velocity depending on the rate of the perturbation growth. The influence of the rate-state friction law parameters on the movements along the fault is not so unambiguous. However, it can be said that the sliding is determined by a combination of the following parameters: the critical length at which the stiffness of the fault section reaches the value of critical stiffness, and the characteristic response time determined by the parameters of the friction law.
How to cite: Turuntaev, S. and Riga, V.: Study of tectonic fault transition from aseismic to seismic slip due to fluid injection, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-16812, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16812, 2023.
