ALBERT

Description: Abstract

Description: Between early 2018 and late 2019 the STIMTEC hydraulic stimulation experiment was performed at ca.~130 m below surface at the Reiche Zeche underground research laboratory in Freiberg, Saxony/Germany. The project aimed at gaining insight into the creation and growth of fractures in anisotropic and heterogeneous metamorphic gneiss , to develop and optimise hydraulic stimulation techniques and to control the associated induced seismicity under in situ conditions at the mine-scale. These aspects of failure and associated seismicity are important for the development of enhanced geothermal energy systems. A combined seismic network consisted of 12 single-component acoustic emission sensors (sensitivity 1-100 kHz) and three single-component Wilcoxon accelerometers (sensitivity 50 Hz-25 kHz) were installed in boreholes drilled into the test volume, surrounding the stimulation site (Figure 1). A stimulation borehole with 63 m length was drilled with 15° northward inclination. This data set of 314 active ultrasonic transmission (UT) measurements is supplementary to Boese et al. (2021, in review), which introduces the STIMTEC experiment and its active measurement campaigns. This data set was used to derive an anisotropic velocity model for the STIMTEC rock volume. The active seismic data provided here are from six boreholes (BH09, BH10, BH12, BH15, BH16, BH17) as shown in Figure 1. of the associated data description. There are three tables provided as metadata that contain the STIMTEC sensor coordinates, event information of the 314 UT measurements and the UT picks. The UT measurements were recorded with a sampling rate of 1 MHz and results from an automatic stack of 1024 UT pulses generated by the ultrasonic transmitter and recorded by the STIMTEC sensors. The UT measurements are saved in binary file format (fsf file format). Fsf-files can be processed with FOCI software: https://www.induced.pl/software/foci Each fsf file contains 32768 samples, which corresponds to 0.032768 seconds. All UT event files were manual inspected and phase arrivals identified. These are stored in the fsf-file header as well as in the table STIMTEC_UT_picks.csv.

Description: Abstract

Description: In 2020 and 2021 the STIMTEC-X hydraulic stimulation experiment was performed at ca.~130 m below surface at the Reiche Zeche underground research laboratory in Freiberg, Saxony/Germany. The project temporally followed the STIMTEC experiment at the same site and aimed at understanding the stress heterogeneity of the anisotropic and metamorphic gneiss rock mass. The STIMTEC-X experiment applied the hydraulic stimulation technique in several boreholes at the mine-scale. Complementary to the stimulations, there were active seismic ultrasonic transmission data acquired before the stimulations. We use a seismic monitoring network consisting of six single-component acoustic emission (AE) sensors (sensitivity 1-60 kHz), six hydrophone-like AE sensors (sensitivity 1-40 kHz) and four to twelve single-component Wilcoxon accelerometers (sensitivity 50 Hz-25 kHz). The AE sensors and remained stationary in sub-horizontal and upwards reaching boreholes, the accelerometers were mostly installed along the tunnel walls with one accelerometer in a shallow borehole in each tunnel, and the hydrophone-like AE sensors were installed in the down-going water filled boreholes, but repositioned for each measurement campaign (Figure 1). This data set of 120 active ultrasonic transmission (UT) measurements is supplementary to Boese et al. (2022, in review), which introduces some of the active measurement campaigns of the STIMTEC-X experiment in detail. The whole data set togetter with the “Ultrasonic transmission measurements from six boreholes from the STIMTEC experiment, Reiche Zeche Mine, Freiberg (Saxony, Germany)” [https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.4.2.2021.002] was used to evaluate performance measures such as sensitivity and frequency bandwith, coupling, placement and polarity of the hydrophone-like AE sensor compared to AE sensors. The active seismic data provided here are from seven boreholes (BH01, BH05, BH06, BH10, BH14, BH18, BH19) as shown in Figure 1. There are nine tables provided as metadata of which seven contain the STIMTEC-X sensor coordinates for each measurement campaign, the event information of all the 120 UT measurements and the UT picks. The UT measurements were recorded with a sampling rate of 1 MHz and results from an automatic stack of 1024 UT pulses generated by the ultrasonic transmitter and recorded by the STIMTEC-X sensors. The UT measurements are saved in binary file format (fsf file format). Fsf-files can be processed with FOCI software: https://www.induced.pl/software/foci. Each fsf file contains 32768 samples, which corresponds to 0.032768 seconds. All UT event files were manual inspected and phase arrivals identified. These are stored in the fsf-file header as well as in the table STIMTECX_UT_picks.csv.

Description: Understanding the relation between injection‐induced seismic moment release and operational parameters is crucial for early identification of possible seismic hazards associated with fluid‐injection projects. We conducted laboratory fluid‐injection experiments on permeable sandstone samples containing a critically stressed fault at different fluid pressurization rates. The observed fluid‐induced fault deformation is dominantly aseismic. Fluid‐induced stick‐slip and fault creep reveal that total seismic moment release of acoustic emission (AE) events is related to total injected volume, independent of respective fault slip behavior. Seismic moment release rate of AE scales with measured fault slip velocity. For injection‐induced fault slip in a homogeneous pressurized region, released moment shows a linear scaling with injected volume for stable slip (steady slip and fault creep), while we find a cubic relation for dynamic slip. Our results highlight that monitoring evolution of seismic moment release with injected volume in some cases may assist in discriminating between stable slip and unstable runaway ruptures.

Description: Plain Language Summary: Anthropogenic earthquakes caused by fluid injection have been reported worldwide to occur in the frame of waste‐water disposal, CO2 sequestration, and stimulation of hydrocarbon or deep geothermal reservoirs. To study the dynamics of injection‐induced seismic energy release in a controlled environment, we performed laboratory fluid injection experiments on critically stressed high‐permeability sandstone samples with a prefabricated fault. We monitored acoustic emission occurring during injection‐induced fault sliding. We find that the total seismic deformation (expressed as total seismic moment) is related to total injected volume, independent of fault slip modes (i.e., dynamic slip, steady slip, and fault creep). Seismic moment release rate roughly scales with fault slip velocity. In our experiments, the fluid pressure front migrates faster than the rupture front by about 5 orders of magnitude, resulting in fault slip within a zone of homogeneous fluid overpressure. We find that cumulative seismic moment scales linearly with the injected volume for stable slip (steady slip and fault creep), while it follows a cubic relation for dynamic slip. Our experimental results suggest that the deviation of cumulative moment release with injected volume from a linear trend in practice might be a sign for potential seismic risk. This may be considered in modifying current injection strategies.

Description: Key Points: Injection‐induced fault deformation is dominantly aseismic. Total moment release depends on total injected volume, independent of fault slip behavior. Moment‐injected volume scaling is linear for stable slip but shows a cubic relation for dynamic slip.