Potential Link Between 2020 Mentone, West Texas M5 Earthquake and Nearby Wastewater Injection: Implications for Aquifer Mechanical Properties

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorTung, Suien
dc.contributor.authorZhai, Guangen
dc.contributor.authorShirzaei, Manoochehren
dc.coverage.stateTexasen
dc.date.accessioned2021-05-17T19:43:05Zen
dc.date.available2021-05-17T19:43:05Zen
dc.date.issued2021-02-16en
dc.description.abstractThe M5 Mentone earthquake that occurred on March 26, 2020, was the largest event recorded over the last 2 decades in West Texas within the Delaware Basin, a U.S. major petroleum-producing area. Also, numerous hydrofracturing and wastewater disposal wells are spread across this region. Within a 30 km distance to mainshock, eight class-II injection wells for industrial wastewater disposal target the deep porous Ellenburger aquifer at an average rate of 1.36 x 10(6) barrel (BBL) per month during 2012-2020. Poroelastic models of fluid diffusion show these nearby injectors collectively imparted up to 80.5 kPa of Coulomb stress at the mainshock location, capable of triggering this M5 event. Assuming the Mentone event occurs when pore-pressure increase is maximum, the time delay between peak injection and the M5 occurrence corresponds with an optimal permeability of 6.76 x 10(-14) m(2) for the Ellenburger aquifer layer, in agreement with independent estimates.en
dc.description.notesThe authors express our gratitude to Rongjiang Wang for providing technical supports in the poroelastic modeling. The authors appreciate the diligent reviewing efforts from the editor, German Prieto, and the associate editor, Susan Bilek. Special thanks to Jens-Erik Lund Snee and another anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments. The work of Sui Tung, Guang Zhai, and Manoocher Shirzaei was supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC0019307). In addition, Sui Tung received minor, partial support from the WHOLESCALE project (DE-EE0009032).en
dc.description.sponsorshipU.S. Department of EnergyUnited States Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0019307]; WHOLESCALE project [DE-EE0009032]en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL090551en
dc.identifier.eissn1944-8007en
dc.identifier.issn0094-8276en
dc.identifier.issue3en
dc.identifier.othere2020GL090551en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/103345en
dc.identifier.volume48en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectinduced seismicityen
dc.subjectinjectionen
dc.subjectMentone earthquakeen
dc.subjectTexasen
dc.subjectwastewateren
dc.titlePotential Link Between 2020 Mentone, West Texas M5 Earthquake and Nearby Wastewater Injection: Implications for Aquifer Mechanical Propertiesen
dc.title.serialGeophysical Research Lettersen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
2020GL090551.pdf
Size:
6.93 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Published version
Download

Collections

Scholarly Works, Geosciences