ALBERT

Description: On May 29th 2006 a mud volcano, later to be named ‘Lusi’, started to form in East Java. It is still active and has displaced 〉 30,000 people. The trigger mechanism for this, the world's largest and best known active mud volcano, is still the subject of debate. Trigger mechanisms considered here are (a) the May 27th 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake, (b) the drilling of the nearby Banjar Panji-1 gas exploration well (150 m away), and (c) a combination of the earthquake and drilling operations. We compare the distance and magnitude of the earthquake with the relationship between the distance and magnitude of historical earthquakes that have caused sediment liquefaction, or triggered the eruption of mud volcanoes or caused other hydrological responses. Based on this comparison, an earthquake trigger is not expected. The static stress changes caused by the rupture of the fault that created the Yogyakarta earthquake are a few tens of Pascals, much smaller than changes in stress caused by tides or variations in barometric pressure. At least 22 earthquakes (and possibly hundreds) likely caused stronger ground shaking at the site of Lusi in the past 30 years without causing an eruption. The period immediately preceding the eruption was seismically quieter than average and thus there is no evidence that Lusi was “primed” by previous earthquakes. We thus rule out an earthquake-only trigger. The day before the eruption started (May 28th 2006), as a result of pulling the drill bit and drill pipe out of the hole, there was a significant influx of formation fluid and gas. The monitored pressure after the influx, in the drill pipe and annulus showed variations typical of the leakage of drilling fluid into the surrounding sedimentary rock strata. Furthermore we calculate that the pressure at a depth of 1091 m (the shallowest depth without any protective steel casing) exceeded a critical level after the influx occurred. Fractures formed due to the excess pressure, allowing a fluid-gas-mud mix to flow to the surface. With detailed data from the exploration well, we can now identify the specific drilling induced phenomena that caused this man-made disaster.

Description: Knowledge of the present-day crustal in-situ stress field is a key for the understanding of geodynamic processes such as global plate tectonics and earthquakes. It is also essential for the management of geo-reservoirs and underground storage sites for energy and waste. Since 1986, the World Stress Map (WSM) project has systematically compiled the orientation of maximum horizontal stress (SHmax). For the 30th anniversary of the project, the WSM database has been updated significantly with 42,870 data records which is double the amount of data in comparison to the database release in 2008. The update focuses on areas with previously sparse data coverage to resolve the stress pattern on different spatial scales. In this paper, we present details of the new WSM database release 2016 and an analysis of global and regional stress pattern. With the higher data density, we can now resolve stress pattern heterogeneities from plate-wide to local scales. In particular, we show two examples of 40°-60° SHmax rotations within 70 km. These rotations can be used as proxies to better understand the relative importance of plate boundary forces that control the long wave-length pattern in comparison to regional and local controls of the crustal stress state. In the new WSM project phase IV that started in 2017, we will continue to further refine the information on the SHmax orientation and the stress regime. However, we will also focus on the compilation of stress magnitude data as this information is essential for the calibration of geomechanical-numerical models. This enables us to derive a 3-D continuous description of the stress tensor from point-wise and incomplete stress tensor information provided with the WSM database. Such forward models are required for safety aspects of anthropogenic activities in the underground and for a better understanding of tectonic processes such as the earthquake cycle.