Pore fluid pressure effects in anisotropic rocks: Mechanisms of induced seismicity and weak faults

Many observations and studies indicate that pore fluid pressure in the crustal rocks plays an important role in deformation, faulting, and earthquake processes. Conventional models of pore pressure effects often assume isotropic porous rocks and yield the nondeviatoric pressure effects which seem insufficient to explain diverse phenomena related to pore pressure variation, such as fluid-extraction induced seismicity and crustal weak faults. We derive the anisotropic effective stress law especially for transversely-isotropic and orthotropic rocks, and propose that the deviatoric effects of pore fluid pressure in anisotropic rocks not only affect rock effective strength but also cause variation of shear stresses. Such shear stress variations induced by either pore pressure buildup or pore pressure decline may lead to faulting instability and trigger earthquakes, and provide mechanisms for the failure of crustal weak faults with low level of shear stresses. We believe that the deviatoric effects of pore fluid pressure in anisotropic rocks are of wide application in studies of earthquake precursors and aftershocks, oil and gas reservoir characterization, enhanced oil recovery, and hydraulic fracturing.     

The Mechanical Coupling of Fluid-Filled Granular Material Under Shear

The coupled mechanics of fluid-filled granular media controls the physics of many Earth systems, for example saturated soils, fault gouge, and landslide shear zones. It is well established that when the pore fluid pressure rises, the shear resistance of fluid-filled granular systems decreases, and, as a result, catastrophic events such as soil liquefaction, earthquakes, and accelerating landslides may be triggered. Alternatively, when the pore pressure drops, the shear resistance of these geosystems increases. Despite the great importance of the coupled mechanics of grain–fluid systems, the basic physics that controls this coupling is far from understood. Fundamental questions that must be addressed include: what are the processes that control pore fluid pressurization and depressurization in response to deformation of the granular skeleton? and how do variations of pore pressure affect the mechanical strength of the grains skeleton? To answer these questions, a formulation for the pore fluid pressure and flow has been developed from mass and momentum conservation, and is coupled with a granular dynamics algorithm that solves the grain dynamics, to form a fully coupled model. The pore fluid formulation reveals that the evolution of pore pressure obeys viscoelastic rheology in response to pore space variations. Under undrained conditions elastic-like behavior dominates and leads to a linear relationship between pore pressure and overall volumetric strain. Viscous-like behavior dominates under well-drained conditions and leads to a linear relationship between pore pressure and volumetric strain rate. Numerical simulations reveal the possibility of liquefaction under drained and initially over-compacted conditions, which were often believed to be resistant to liquefaction. Under such conditions liquefaction occurs during short compactive phases that punctuate the overall dilative trend. In addition, the previously recognized generation of elevated pore pressure under undrained compactive conditions is observed. Simulations also show that during liquefaction events stress chains are detached, the external load becomes completely supported by the pressurized pore fluid, and shear resistance vanishes.     

断层带流体对断层强度和强震孕育的影响

大量研究表明,流体在断层弱化中起着非常重要的作用.在地壳浅部脆性域,自由水通过流体孔隙压力减小断层有效正压力,从而降低断层摩擦强度;在地壳深部,矿物中的微量结构水弱化岩石流变强度.另外,流体-岩石相互作用等化学过程,如长石水解反应,对断层强度的影响也非常显著.断层深部流体通过物理作用与化学作用影响着岩石的变形机制,从而影响断层力学性质与地震孕育和发生.断层内部流体孔隙压力周期性变化是断层带脆-塑性转化、裂缝张开与愈合等的直接体现,这种变化控制着断层强度与强震周期性发生现象.     

Ductile creep and compaction: A mechanism for transiently increasing fluid pressure in mostly sealed fault zones

A simple cyclic process is proposed to explain why major strike-slip fault zones, including the San Andreas, are weak. Field and laboratory studies suggest that the fluid within fault zones is often mostly sealed from that in the surrounding country rock. Ductile creep driven by the difference between fluid pressure and lithostatic pressure within a fault zone leads to compaction that increases fluid pressure. The increased fluid pressure allows frictional failure in earthquakes at shear tractions far below those required when fluid pressure is hydrostatic. The frictional slip associated with earthquakes creates porosity in the fault zone. The cycle adjusts so that no net porosity is created (if the fault zone remains constant width). The fluid pressure within the fault zone reaches long-term dynamic equilibrium with the (hydrostatic) pressure in the country rock. One-dimensional models of this process lead to repeatable and predictable earthquake cycles. However, even modest complexity, such as two parallel fault splays with different pressure histories, will lead to complicated earthquake cycles. Two-dimensional calculations allowed computation of stress and fluid pressure as a function of depth but had complicated behavior with the unacceptable feature that numerical nodes failed one at a time rather than in large earthquakes. A possible way to remove this unphysical feature from the models would be to include a failure law in which the coefficient of friction increases at first with frictional slip, stabilizing the fault, and then decreases with further slip, destabilizing it.     

Kinetic shear resistance,fluid pressures and radiation efficiency during seismic faulting

Summary During earthquake faulting, radiation efficiency and the degree stress relief are critically dependent on the kinetic shear resistance. This is often assumed to stay constant during slip, but geological evidence suggests that for moderate or large shallow earthquakes it may decrease dramatically to near-zero values once slip is initiated, either by melt formation or by transient increases in fluid pressure on the fault plane. The latter, probably more common process may arise partly through an interaction between temperature and water pressure, and partly through dilatancy recovery as shear stress is relieved. If the fault remains undrained, stress relief should be absolute with seismic efficiency reaching high values, so that stress drops give a measure of the level of tectonic shear stress in fault zones. Supporting evidence comes from the observation that apparent stress is generally about half the stress drop.     

Volume changes during fracture and frictional sliding: A review

Summary Volume changes in geologic materials have been measured with strain gauges, cantilever displacement gauges, or through observation of either pore or total volume. When porosity is less than 0.05, compaction is small or absent; apart from elastic strains in the minerals, dilatancy predominates, beginning at 50 to 75 percent of the fracture stress difference. When initial porosity exceeds about 0.05, compaction and dilatancy may overlap. The onset of dilatancy has not been identified, but most of the dilatancy occurs within about 10 percent of the fracture stress difference. In low porosity rocks, dilatancy increases initial porosity by a factor of 2 or more; in porous rocks or granular aggregates the increase is only 20 to 50 percent. However, the actual pore volume increase is larger in rocks of high initial porosity. Hence, earthquake precursors which depend on the magnitude of dilatancy should be more pronounced in porous rocks or in fault gouge. In contrast, precursors which are based on fractional changes in some porosity-related property may be more pronounced in rocks of low initial porosity. Future work is particularly needed on constitutive relations suitable for major classes of rocks, on the effects of stress cycling in porous rocks, on the effects of high temperature and pore fluids on dilatancy and compaction, and on the degree of localization of strain prior to fracture.     

地下水对震源体应力、应变场的影响——以唐山地震为例

通过数值模拟 ,研究渗流场和应力场相互作用 ,了解在震源区地下水对应力场和应变场的影响。结果表明 ,岩石的抗剪强度及摩擦阻力随孔隙压力的增加而降低 ,孔隙压力使应变分布发生变化 ,断层及其附近剪切应力升高。地下水的这些效应可能与地震震源过程有关     

利用数字遥感图像研究长白山天池火山近代喷发规模

利用LandsatTM、ERS - 1SAR遥感图像资料 ,结合地质考察、测年资料 ,采用多源数据融合技术 ,运用GIS、正交小波变换、人工神经元网络 ,对图像进行了分类 ,研究了长白山天池火山近代喷发规模及喷发物分布特点 ,为火山灾害评价提供了重要依据     

Experimental investigation on fluid characteristics of medium dense saturated fine sand in pre- and post-liquefaction

Liquefaction of saturated loose sand is a major cause of extensive damage to buildings and infrastructures during large earthquakes. A better understanding of the behaviour of liquefied soil is becoming increasingly necessary to mitigate earthquake damage, and the fluid method has become an increasingly popular means to study the behaviour of liquefied soils. The purpose of this study is to determine the fluid characteristics of liquefied fine sand. In this paper, the apparent viscosity was measured as an index of fluid characteristics using the shaking table tests of pre-liquefaction behaviour of saturated fine sand at approximately 45 % relative density; the relationship of apparent viscosity and shear strain rate on liquefying fine sand was indicated as a power-law shear-thinning non-Newtonian fluid; and liquefying fine sand has the alternating behaviour of shear dilatancy and compressibility during cyclic loading. Additionally, a series of a monotonic axial compression loading tests in an undrained manner were performed to measure the shear stress and excess pore pressure ratio relationship on the post-liquefaction saturated fine sand at approximately 50 % relative density. The fluid characteristics of post-liquefaction fine sand exhibits rate dependence and can be described by a combined fluid model of time-independent and time-dependent power-law functions; the time-independent viscous resistance is not relevant to the excess pore pressure ratio; but the time-dependent frictional resistance is closely related to the excess pore pressure ratio. Furthermore, the results of the verification tests demonstrate that the proposed fluid model has good applicability for the fluid behaviour of the post-liquefaction fine sand.     

孕震过程中孔隙压及地下水位变化的数值模拟

地震孕育过程中孕震区内各点的应力应变都将发生变化，介质的物性参数也将改变，因此孔隙压和地下水位随之改变。本文在研究孕震过程中包括扩容和断层蠕变效应在内的应力应变场的基础上，根据应力场与孔隙压场的耦合方程，把孔隙压场随应力场的应力变化定量地计算出来。计算结果表明，孕震过程中孔隙压的变化与应力场变的化的强弱及南的渗透性能等因素相关。孕震过程后期，震源区表现为扩容区并且孔隙压强以负压为主，此结果显示着震     

Modelling microseismicity of a producing reservoir from coupled fluid‐flow and geomechanical simulation

In this paper, we investigate production induced microseismicity based on modelling material failure from coupled fluid‐flow and geomechanical simulation. The model is a graben style reservoir characterized by two normal faults subdividing a sandstone reservoir into three compartments. The results are analysed in terms of spatial and temporal variations in distribution of material failure. We observe that material failure and hence potentially microseismicity is sensitive to not only fault movement but also fluid movement across faults. For sealing faults, failure is confined to the volume in and around the well compartment, with shear failure localized along the boundaries of the compartment and shear‐enhanced compaction failure widespread throughout the reservoir compartment. For non‐sealing faults, failure is observed within and surrounding all three reservoir compartments as well as a significant distribution located near the surface of the overburden. All shear‐enhanced compaction failures are localized within the reservoir compartments. Fault movement leads to an increase in shear‐enhanced compaction events within the reservoir as well as shear events located within the side‐burden adjacent to the fault. We also evaluate the associated moment tensor mechanisms to estimate the pseudo scalar seismic moment of failure based on the assumption that failure is not aseismic. The shear‐enhanced compaction events display a relatively normal and tight pseudo scalar seismic moment distribution centred about 10⁶ Pa, whereas the shear events have pseudo scalar seismic moments that vary over three orders of magnitude. Overall, the results from the study indicate that it may be possible to identify compartment boundaries based on the results of microseismic monitoring.     

THE GEOLOGICAL AND ROCK MECHANICAL DISTINCTION EVIDENCE BETWEEN STICK-SLIP AND CREEP IN HOST ROCK SEGMENTS OF FAULT

Paleo-seismic and fault activity are hard to distinguish in host rock areas compared with soft sedimentary segments of fault. However, fault frictional experiments could obtain the conditions of stable and unstable slide, as well as the microstructures of fault gouge, which offer some identification marks between stick-slip and creep of fault. We summarized geological and rock mechanical distinction evidence between stick-slip and creep in host rock segments of fault, and analyzed the physical mechanisms which controlled the behavior of stick-slip and creep. The chemical composition of fault gouge is most important to control stick-slip and creep. Gouge composed by weak minerals, such as clay mineral, has velocity weakening behavior, which causes stable slide of fault. Gouge with rock-forming minerals, such as calcite, quartz, feldspar, pyroxene, has stick-slip behavior under condition of focal depth. To the gouge with same chemical composition, the deformation mechanism controls the frictional slip. It is essential condition to stick slip for brittle fracture companied by dilatation, but creep is controlled by compaction and cataclasis as well as ductile shear with foliation and small fold. However, under fluid conditions, pressure solution which healed the fractures and caused strength recovery of fault, is the original reason of unstable slide, and also resulted in locking of fault with high pore pressure in core of fault zone. Contrast with that, rock-forming minerals altered to phyllosilicates in the gouges by fluid flow through degenerative reaction and hydrolysis reaction, which produced low friction fault and transformations to creep. The creep process progressively developed several wide shear zones including of R, Y, T, P shear plane that comprise gouge zones embedded into wide damage zones, which caused small earthquake distributed along wide fault zones with focal mechanism covered by normal fault, strike-slip fault and reverse fault. However, the stick-slip produced mirror-like slide surfaces with very narrow gouges along R shear plane and Y shear plane, which caused small earthquake distributed along narrow fault zones with single kind of focal mechanism.     

地壳岩石剪切失稳的应力与应变准则

本文建立了岩石体膨胀起点与峰值点之间应力与应变关系的解析表达式,分别给出了其剪切失稳应力与应变准则.考虑到地壳岩石缓慢加载作用使其均匀性指标的减小效应,本文也分别给出了简化的适用于脆性破坏预测的应力与应变准则.实例表明该应变准则可用于崩塌与强震等脆性破坏问题的预测分析.     

龙门山断裂带金河磷矿剖面断层泥的低速至高速摩擦性质研究

本文对龙门山断裂带金河磷矿浅钻岩芯中的三种断层泥开展了低速到高速摩擦滑动的实验研究,并对实验变形样品开展了BET比表面积研究.摩擦实验在干燥和孔隙水压条件下开展,速率范围涵盖20 μm·s^-1~1.4 m·s^-1.实验结果显示,三种断层泥在干燥条件下的摩擦性质差别不大,但在孔隙水压条件下,三者的中低速摩擦强度与层状硅酸盐矿物的种类而非总含量紧密相关,蒙脱石和伊利石相比绿泥石更能有效地弱化断层.三种断层泥在孔隙水压条件下存在中低速率域的速度强化,暗示着对断层的加速滑动存在一定的阻碍作用.孔隙水压下,黄绿色和灰绿色断层泥的初始动态弱化非常迅速并伴随断层泥层的瞬时扩容,凹凸体急剧加热导致的局部热压作用可能是造成这种力学行为的物理机制.在经历高速滑动之后,三种断层泥在干、湿条件下的BET比表面积都显著降低,暗示着可能发生了颗粒烧结.中低速域内,孔隙水的存在使得断层泥呈现分散式的剪切变形,BET比表面积的增加因此比干燥条件下更加明显.对表面能的估算表明,颗粒磨碎所消耗的能量至多不超过摩擦力做功的8%,暗示着断层作用中颗粒磨碎所占的能量比例较低.     

Moment Tensor Solutions and Triggering Environment for Earthquakes in Koyna-Warna Water Reservoirs Region,India

We consider nine earthquakes in the Koyna-Warna reservoir region on the western side of the Peninsular India. The deviatoric moment tensors of these earthquakes have been evaluated by minimizing the least-squares misfit between observed and synthetic seismograms. We use broadband seismograms of observatories at KARD and PUNE which are at distances of nearly 50 and 150 km, respectively, from the epicenters. Both surface wave inversion and the difference between the arrival times of SH and SV show the presence of an anisotropic crust. However, we have obtained an equivalent isotropic structure by improving the published crustal structures of this area through inversion of surface wave group velocity data. The deviatoric moment tensors of the earthquakes are decomposed into two components: double-couple and compensated linear vector dipoles (CLVD). The double-couple components of all the nine earthquakes show normal faulting with minor strike slip; the T axis is consistently subhorizontal with an average azimuth of 260.6° and the P axis is nearly vertical. The fault planes of six events give average strike direction and dip, respectively as 194.0° and 51.8° and are associated with the main fault of the area. The other three events lie in the southern part of this area and have strike direction between SSE and SE which is parallel to the tectonic features in this part. The CLVD component is generally within 20 percent of the total moment tensor. Recent studies show that anisotropy can produce source mechanism with CLVD up to 30 percent and can also cause high pore fluid pressure leading to fault instability more rapidly compared to conventional mechanism in an isotropic medium. It appears that the anisotropic crust, noted in the present work, is generating the CLVD component and also gives the proper environment to trigger earthquakes by reservoirs through pore fluid pressure.     

不同注水方式下断层动力学响应数值模拟研究

工业开采注水能导致现存断层活化,从而诱发大量的破坏型地震。因此,研究注水作用下断层的动力学响应对探索诱发地震的力学机理具有重要的意义。本文基于孔弹性弹簧-滑块模型,采用多孔介质弹性耦合数值模拟,计算分析了三类典型注水方式（上升型、迅速上升/下降型和间歇型）对断层稳定性的影响。研究结果表明:随着流体的不断注入,断层内部流体压力会经过缓慢上升、迅速上升和稳定上升三个阶段。针对于不同的注水方式,这三个阶段并不完全相同,体现形式存在差异;在注水方式相同的条件下,储层的渗透率越小,井口附近流体压力越大,断层处流体压力越小,两者间的流体压力差值越大;注水过程中断层临界刚度的变化与是否发生滑移并引发地震密切相关,数值越大越易诱发地震,其数值与注入储层流体的流体压力呈负相关,与流体压力变化率呈正相关;临界刚度由于流体压力变化率的增加在前期呈现快速增长趋势,后期则是由于流体压力的影响开始减小。迅速上升/下降型注水方式极大增加了注水前期诱发地震的可能性,间歇性注水方式在注水后期引起的临界刚度变化值较大,增大了诱发地震的可能性。该研究可以为注水诱发地震的危险性评价提供定量的科学依据。      

Connection between earthquakes and deep fluids revealed by magnetotelluric imaging in Songyuan,China

Songyuan is the most earthquake prone area in northeast China.Since 2006,earthquakes have occurred in the area in the form of swarms,with a maximum magnitude of M_L5.8.There is much controversy about the cause of the Songyuan earthquakes.We attempted to determine the cause using a three-dimensional electrical conductivity structure inverted from a regional network of magnetotelluric data in the Songyuan area.The L-BFGS inversion method was applied,with a fullimpedance tensor data set used as the inversion input.Combined with an evaluation of the earthquake locations,the resistivity model revealed a northeast-oriented hidden fault running through the Songyuan earthquake area(SEA),which was speculated to be the preexisting Fuyu-Zhaodong Fault(FZF).Our resistivity model also found an apparent lithospheric low-resistivity anomaly beneath the earthquake area,which breached the high-resistivity lithospheric mantle and stalled at the base of the crust.A petrophysical analysis showed that this lower crustal low-resistivity anomaly was most likely attributed to hydrated partial melting,which could release water into the lower crust during later magma emplacements.While weakening the strength of the FZF,these ascending fluids also increased the pore pressure in the fault,further reducing the shear strength of the fault.Shear stress action(a fault strike component of the east-west regional compress),together with possible near-surface disturbances,may drive the fault to slip and trigger the earthquakes in Songyuan.It is possible that the continuous replenishment of fluids from the deeper mantle forces the Songyuan earthquakes into the form of swarms.We infer that the Songyuan earthquakes could be attributed to a combination of preexisting faults,regional stress,and deep fluids associated with plate subduction,and near surface disturbances might induce the earthquakes in advance.The Songyuan earthquakes are inherently induced earthquakes,fed by deep fluids.     

Acoustic Emissions Monitoring during Inelastic Deformation of Porous Sandstone: Comparison of Three Modes of Deformation

In some reservoirs, large deformations can occur during oil or gas production because of the effective stress change. For very porous rocks, these production operations can be sufficient to cause inelastic deformation and irreversible damage. Rock formations can undergo deformation by different mechanisms, including dilatancy or pore collapse. In the laboratory, it has been shown that the inelastic deformation and failure mode of porous rocks are pressure sensitive. Indeed, when subjected to an overall compressive loading, a porous rock may fail by shear localization, compaction localization, or by cataclastic compaction. Acoustic emission (AE) records provide important information to understand the failure mode of rocks: the spatial evolution of damage as well as the source mechanisms can be followed using this technique. In this paper, we present three different laboratory axisymmetric compression experiments, performed on Bleurswiller sandstone, which enable us to compare the acoustic emission signature of these three modes of deformation. Our data show that compaction localization and cataclastic compaction are characterized by similar acoustic signatures (in terms of AE sources characteristics and evolution of AE number), in comparison to the acoustic signature from shear localization. This implies similar micromechanisms involved during compaction bands formation and cataclastic compaction.     

注水诱发地震的研究进展

研究注水诱发地震的特征、发生机理和最大可能震级等对开展诱发地震的预防、危险性评价、减灾策略制定等方面的工作具有重要意义。文章系统地梳理了国内外关于注水诱发地震研究的主要认识和分歧。结果表明：(1)诱发地震的最大可能震级由断层大小和应力状态等地质条件决定,受注水压力和累积注水量等参数的影响;(2)识别诱发地震的可靠方法取决于地震和注水之间的时空相关性,统计模型的参数以及断层活化分析等一系列证据链条;(3)当断层与流体储层之间存在水力连接时,孔隙压力扰动是诱发地震的主要发生机制,反之岩石基质体积变形引起的孔隙弹性应力变化主导了诱发地震的过程。此外,注水诱发的稳定滑动传播到断层的孕震部分、流体的化学作用和小地震级联触发效应也可能在注水诱发地震中发挥重要的作用。研究结果将为注水诱发地震机理研究和减轻破坏性诱发地震灾害提供一定的科学参考。     

Pore-fluid pressures and frictional heating on a fault surface

This study considers the effects of heat transfer and fluid flow on the thernal, hydrologic, and mechanical response of a fault surface during seismic failure. Numerical modeling techniques are used to account for the coupling of the thermal, fluid-pressure, and stress fields. Results indicate that during an earthquake the failure surface is heated to a tempeature required for the thermal expansion of pore fluids to balance the rate of fluid loss due to flow and the fluid-volume changes due to pore dilatation. Once this condition is established, the pore fluids pressurize and the shear strength decreases rapidly to a value sufficient to maintain the thermal pressurization of pore fluids at near-lithostatic values. If the initial fluid pressure is hydrostatic, the final temperature attained on the failure surface will increase with depth, because a greater pressure increase can occur before a near-lithostatic pressure is reached. The rate at which thermal pressurization proceeds depends primarily on the hydraulic characteristics of the surrounding porous medium, the coefficient of friction on the fault surface, and the slip velocity. If either the permeability exceeds 10^–15 m² or the porous medium compressibility exceeds 10^–8 Pa^–1, then frictional melting may occur on the fault surface before thermal pressurization becomes significant. If the coefficient of friction is less than 10^–1 and if the slip velocity is less than 10^–2 msec^–1, then it is doubtful that either thermal pressurization or frictional melting on the fault surface could cause a reduction in the dynamic shear strength of a fault during an earthquake event.