The study, carried out by scientists from the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) and the University of Oslo, involved combining new acoustically controlled liquid injection experiments with numerical modeling results.
The researchers found that rough faults in rocks behave differently from smooth faults during fluid injection experiments, revealing progressive localization of microseismic activity, indicating stress transfer before major events.
This observation is important because it suggests that by monitoring fluid injection in real time, we can detect such localization processes before they lead to large earthquakes.
The study also found that induced seismicity under laboratory conditions shares similarities with induced earthquakes under field conditions corresponding to pressure-controlled ruptures. In such earthquakes, fault sliding stops immediately after fluid injection ceases.
This finding suggests that laboratory experiments can be used to better understand the physics of fluid injection-induced seismicity and ultimately help reduce the risk of man-made earthquakes.
Source: Ferra
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