EGU24-3789, updated on 08 Mar 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-3789
EGU General Assembly 2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Characteristics for b-value of induced seismicity in Southeast of Sichuan Basin, China

Mengyu Xie1, Yunxiao Zhao2, and Lingyuan Meng1
Mengyu Xie et al.
  • 1China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC), No.5. Sanlihenanheng Street Xicheng District, Beijing, 100045, China (xiemengyu@seis.ac.cn; menglingyuan@seis.ac.cn)
  • 2Institute of Earthquake Forecasting (IEF) of the China Earthquake Administration (CEA), No. 63, Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100036, China (zhaoyunxiaozyx@163.com)

Due to abundant shale gas buried beneath Southeast of Sichuan Basin, China (SBC), hydraulic fracturing operations are implemented since 2008. And large-scale shale gas mining began in December 2014. A rapid increase in the rate of seismicity in SBC since 2015, including the 16 December 2018 MS5.7, the 3 January 2019 MS5.3, the 17 June 2019 MS6.0, the 8 September 2019 MS5.4, the 18 December 2019 MS5.2, the 16 September 2021 MS6.0 and the 6 April 2022 MS5.1 earthquakes. Those earthquakes have caused much damages and many injures, which attracts a lot of attention from society and researchers. The related studies show that seismicity in SBC are induced by or related to hydraulic fracturing operation (Meng et al, 2019; Lei et al, 2019). In this work, we try to study the characteristics of local seismicity and explore the spatiotemporal characteristics of b-value in G-R relation to gain insight into the possible dynamic processes beneath the induced seismicity and assess the seismic hazards. The preliminary results indicate that the average b-value decrease from 1.17 to 0.75 when the 16 September 2021 MS6.0 earthquake occurred. And there is a substantial reduction of b-value before the 8 September 2019 MS5.4 earthquake. Moreover, the temporal variations for b-values don’t show a common pattern.

 

This study was supported by the Science for Earthquake Resilience (XH22011YA), “Real-time analyze characteristics of earthquake sequence by b-value and waveform” and National Natural Science Foundation of China (41974068), “Seismicity for Shale Gas Hydraulic Fracturing Stimulation”.

 

Lei X L, Wang Z W, Su J R. 2019. The December 2018 ML 5.7 and January 2019 ML 5.3 Earthquakes in South Sichuan Basin Induced by Shale Gas Hydraulic Fracturing. Seismological Research Letters, 90(3), 1099-1110, doi: 10.1785/0220190029.

Meng L, McGarr A, Zhou L, Zang Y. 2019. An Investigation of Seismicity Induced by Hydraulic Fracturing in the Sichuan Basin of China Based on Data from a Temporary Seismic Network. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 109(1), 348–357, doi: 10.1785/0120180310.

How to cite: Xie, M., Zhao, Y., and Meng, L.: Characteristics for b-value of induced seismicity in Southeast of Sichuan Basin, China, EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-3789, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-3789, 2024.