Static behaviour of induced seismicity

TL;DR

This paper proposes a static stress-based model to describe induced seismicity, challenging the traditional fluid diffusion paradigm and demonstrating its applicability to seismicity triggered by volume changes at depth.

Contribution

It introduces a static stress model for induced seismicity that simplifies the description and aligns with the Non-Critical Precursory Accelerating Seismicity Theory.

Findings

The static stress model reproduces seismicity patterns similar to poroelastic models.

Fluid flow is not essential for modeling induced seismicity.

The model extends the Non-Critical Precursory Accelerating Seismicity Theory to induced events.

Abstract

The standard paradigm to describe seismicity induced by fluid injection is to apply nonlinear diffusion dynamics in a poroelastic medium. I show that the spatiotemporal behaviour and rate evolution of induced seismicity can, instead, be expressed by geometric operations on a static stress field produced by volume change at depth. I obtain laws similar in form to the ones derived from poroelasticity while requiring a lower description length. Although fluid flow is known to occur in the ground, it is not pertinent to the behaviour of induced seismicity. The proposed model is equivalent to the static stress model for tectonic foreshocks generated by the Non- Critical Precursory Accelerating Seismicity Theory. This study hence verifies the explanatory power of this theory outside of its original scope.