A CASUAL INFERENCE APPROACH TO INDUCED SEISMICITY IN OKLAHOMA

Open Access
- Author:
- Bates, Keith Paul
- Area of Honors:
- Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Eugene C Morgan, Thesis Supervisor
Russell Taylor Johns, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- earthquake
water injection
seismic activity
Oklahoma
fault - Abstract:
- This study seeks to determine the potential relationship between induced seismicity and water disposal within the state of Oklahoma. To conduct this analysis, data pertaining to water injection wells, faults, and earthquake activity was collected for the state of Oklahoma. This data was then used to determine if there is a statistical correlation between the rate and magnitude of seismic activity and water injection. Other factors such as the number of injection wells, cumulative volume injected, and cumulative injection pressure were also analyzed to determine any potential correlations with earthquake frequency. After conducting the aforementioned analysis, several interesting conclusions were made. As most faults in this study did not experience any seismic activity, such correlations between frequency and other factors such as the number of wells, volume injected, and injection pressure could not be studied in full. For the faults that did experience activity, it was determined that while a high level of correlation does not appear to exist between earthquake frequency and factors such as the number of injection wells, volume injected, or injected pressure, the results do show some level of significant statistical relevance. This result in part supports theories that have been proposed regarding the relationship between earthquake activity and water injection, but it also creates new questions. During this analysis, it was determined that faults that have earthquake activity generally had increased activity after being exposed to water injection, but for the majority of faults, water injection did not appear to impact the level of seismic activity. Furthermore, faults that had earthquake activity did not appear to do so on a consistent basic in accordance with other factors. This result allows for an interesting discussion into the types of faults that may be more susceptible to induced seismicity, as further study must be done to gain a greater understanding of the true relationship between earthquake activity and water injection.