Microseismicity Modulation Due To Changes in Geothermal Production at San Emidio, Nevada, USA

Hao Guo; Clifford Thurber; Erin Cunningham; Michael Cardiff; Neal Lord; Peter Sobol; Herb Wang; Kurt L. Feigl

doi:10.1029/2024GL112063

Microseismicity Modulation Due To Changes in Geothermal Production at San Emidio, Nevada, USA

Hao Guo, Clifford Thurber, Erin Cunningham, Michael Cardiff, Neal Lord, Peter Sobol, Herb Wang, Kurt L. Feigl

Collection Science and Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Brief cessations of geothermal production can induce seismicity, a phenomenon that has drawn increasing attention in recent years. Such observations are rare, and the underlying mechanism requires careful analysis. In April 2022, a dense seismic and hydrologic monitoring system was deployed at the San Emidio geothermal field, Nevada, to accompany a planned power plant shutdown. Using the dense seismic array data, we detected and located ∼1,800 microseismic events (MSEs) and developed a high-resolution tomographic P-wave velocity model. We observed substantially increased microseismicity during shutdown. Most MSEs occurred on pre-existing normal faults, which are contained within extremely low-velocity zones that are likely damaged, fluid-filled, and hydraulically connected to nearby production wells. Hydrologic data show rapid fluid pressure increases of <60 kPa following the shutdown. We suggest that the cessation of production rapidly increased fluid pressures along pre-existing fault zones, activating critically stressed fault patches and fractures and producing microseismicity.

Original language	English
Article number	e2024GL112063
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	52
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112063
State	Published - Feb 28 2025

Funding

We thank Steven Roecker for helping us with running REST. The WHOLESCALE team thanks the following individuals at Ormat Technologies, Inc: Curtis Peach, Cliff Reed, Joe Pavone, Manolo Di Donato, Leeta Miller, Alan Pinuelas\u2010Molina, David Schwab, Lup\u00E9 Gonsalez Ortiz, Gabrielle Ramirez, Courtney Brailo, Zack Young, John Murphy, and Robin Zuza. We also acknowledge the data shared by Ormat. We thank all the individuals who contributed to the field work: DJ Bustos, Alan Horton, Ben Heath, Sabrina Bradshaw, Samantha Kleich, Anya Wolterman, Ben Jahnke, Zirou Jin, Nina Miller, and Bret Pecoraro. We thank Joanna Holmgren and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments. Some figures were made with The Generic Mapping Tools version 6 (GMT 6, Wessel et al., 2019 ). The work presented herein has been funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), U.S. Department of Energy, under Award Number DE\u2010EE0009032.

Keywords

fluid pressure
geothermal production cessation
induced microseismicity
seismic event detection
seismic location
seismic tomography

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10.1029/2024GL112063

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title = "Microseismicity Modulation Due To Changes in Geothermal Production at San Emidio, Nevada, USA",

abstract = "Brief cessations of geothermal production can induce seismicity, a phenomenon that has drawn increasing attention in recent years. Such observations are rare, and the underlying mechanism requires careful analysis. In April 2022, a dense seismic and hydrologic monitoring system was deployed at the San Emidio geothermal field, Nevada, to accompany a planned power plant shutdown. Using the dense seismic array data, we detected and located ∼1,800 microseismic events (MSEs) and developed a high-resolution tomographic P-wave velocity model. We observed substantially increased microseismicity during shutdown. Most MSEs occurred on pre-existing normal faults, which are contained within extremely low-velocity zones that are likely damaged, fluid-filled, and hydraulically connected to nearby production wells. Hydrologic data show rapid fluid pressure increases of <60 kPa following the shutdown. We suggest that the cessation of production rapidly increased fluid pressures along pre-existing fault zones, activating critically stressed fault patches and fractures and producing microseismicity.",

keywords = "fluid pressure, geothermal production cessation, induced microseismicity, seismic event detection, seismic location, seismic tomography",

author = "Hao Guo and Clifford Thurber and Erin Cunningham and Michael Cardiff and Neal Lord and Peter Sobol and Herb Wang and Feigl, {Kurt L.}",

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AU - Guo, Hao

AU - Thurber, Clifford

AU - Cunningham, Erin

AU - Cardiff, Michael

AU - Lord, Neal

AU - Sobol, Peter

AU - Wang, Herb

AU - Feigl, Kurt L.

PY - 2025/2/28

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N2 - Brief cessations of geothermal production can induce seismicity, a phenomenon that has drawn increasing attention in recent years. Such observations are rare, and the underlying mechanism requires careful analysis. In April 2022, a dense seismic and hydrologic monitoring system was deployed at the San Emidio geothermal field, Nevada, to accompany a planned power plant shutdown. Using the dense seismic array data, we detected and located ∼1,800 microseismic events (MSEs) and developed a high-resolution tomographic P-wave velocity model. We observed substantially increased microseismicity during shutdown. Most MSEs occurred on pre-existing normal faults, which are contained within extremely low-velocity zones that are likely damaged, fluid-filled, and hydraulically connected to nearby production wells. Hydrologic data show rapid fluid pressure increases of <60 kPa following the shutdown. We suggest that the cessation of production rapidly increased fluid pressures along pre-existing fault zones, activating critically stressed fault patches and fractures and producing microseismicity.

AB - Brief cessations of geothermal production can induce seismicity, a phenomenon that has drawn increasing attention in recent years. Such observations are rare, and the underlying mechanism requires careful analysis. In April 2022, a dense seismic and hydrologic monitoring system was deployed at the San Emidio geothermal field, Nevada, to accompany a planned power plant shutdown. Using the dense seismic array data, we detected and located ∼1,800 microseismic events (MSEs) and developed a high-resolution tomographic P-wave velocity model. We observed substantially increased microseismicity during shutdown. Most MSEs occurred on pre-existing normal faults, which are contained within extremely low-velocity zones that are likely damaged, fluid-filled, and hydraulically connected to nearby production wells. Hydrologic data show rapid fluid pressure increases of <60 kPa following the shutdown. We suggest that the cessation of production rapidly increased fluid pressures along pre-existing fault zones, activating critically stressed fault patches and fractures and producing microseismicity.

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Microseismicity Modulation Due To Changes in Geothermal Production at San Emidio, Nevada, USA

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