Data Release for 'The Susceptibility of Oklahoma’s Basement to Seismic Reactivation' NGEO 2019
Recent widespread seismicity in Oklahoma is attributed to the reactivation of pre
existing, critically-stressed, and seismically unstable faults due to decades of wastewater
injection. However, the structure and properties of the reactivated faults remain concealed by the
sedimentary cover. Here, we explore the major ingredients needed to induce earthquakes in
Oklahoma by characterizing basement faults in the field, in seismic surveys and via rock
mechanics experiments. Outcrop and satellite mapping reveal widespread fracture/fault systems
with trends that display a marked similarity to the trends of recent earthquake lineaments. Our
3D seismic analyses show steeply-dipping basement-rooted faults that penetrate the overlying
sedimentary sequences, representing pathways for wastewater migration. Experimental stability
analysis indicates that Oklahoma’s basement rocks become seismically unstable at conditions
relevant to the dominant hypocentral depths of the recent earthquakes. These analyses
demonstrate that the geometry, structure and mechanical stability of Oklahoma’s basement make
it critically susceptible to seismic reactivation.
Complete Metadata
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"fn": "David A Lockner",
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|
| description | Recent widespread seismicity in Oklahoma is attributed to the reactivation of pre existing, critically-stressed, and seismically unstable faults due to decades of wastewater injection. However, the structure and properties of the reactivated faults remain concealed by the sedimentary cover. Here, we explore the major ingredients needed to induce earthquakes in Oklahoma by characterizing basement faults in the field, in seismic surveys and via rock mechanics experiments. Outcrop and satellite mapping reveal widespread fracture/fault systems with trends that display a marked similarity to the trends of recent earthquake lineaments. Our 3D seismic analyses show steeply-dipping basement-rooted faults that penetrate the overlying sedimentary sequences, representing pathways for wastewater migration. Experimental stability analysis indicates that Oklahoma’s basement rocks become seismically unstable at conditions relevant to the dominant hypocentral depths of the recent earthquakes. These analyses demonstrate that the geometry, structure and mechanical stability of Oklahoma’s basement make it critically susceptible to seismic reactivation. |
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| modified | 2020-08-18T00:00:00Z |
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| title | Data Release for 'The Susceptibility of Oklahoma’s Basement to Seismic Reactivation' NGEO 2019 |
