INFLUENCE OF PRESSURE HEAD CHANGE AND ITS CHANGE RATE ON RESERVOIR TRIGGERED SEISMICITY -A CASE STUDY OF ZIPINGPU RESERVOIR

For analyzing the role that reservoir impounding plays in triggering earthquake, the process of diffusion of pore pressure and its mechanism of action should be understood firstly. The temporal distribution of seismicity, which occurred before the M_S8.0 Wenchuan earthquake, following the impoundment of Zipingpu reservoir is studied in this paper. Then the mechanisms of the occurrence and development of reservoir triggered seismicity are discussed. A comparative analysis of the temporal distribution of seismicity and the submerged area by reservoir impounding is carried out firstly. Then the influence of various factors on modeling is analyzed in detail. After calculating, the pore pressure change by the Zipingpu reservoir impoundment is obtained. The following observations are made:(1)Conspicuous swarms of earthquakes, of which the sources are located on the same fault of the M_S8.0 Wenchuan earthquake, occurred orderly with the impoundment of Zipingpu reservoir.(2)Because of the influences of the terrain and the medium, the range of effect of pore pressure change by the impoundmemt is limited and anisotropic. Hydraulic diffusivities(D)of 0.7 and 0.35m²/s along the fault strike and the fault dip are reached respectively by a semi-quantitative assessment. Of course, the qualitative pressure constraints on the surface are also applied for the modeling.(3)The calculation results show that the temporal distribution of seismicity near the Zipingpu reservoir is related with the pore pressure change. After the pore pressure reached the threshold of triggering earthquake, whether the pressure head change is high or not, the change rate of pressure head change plays a key role in the decrease or increase of seismicity. It means that the triggered seismicity by pore pressure is a dynamic triggering process.