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WITHIN THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN UNITED STATES THE NUMBER OF SMALL-TO MODERATE-SIZED EARTHQUAKES HAS INCREASED DRASTICALLY SINCE 2009. MANY OF THESE SEISMIC EVENTS ARE LIKELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE INCREASED WASTEWATER DISPOSAL RATE FROM OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES AS THE INJECTION-RELATED PORE PRESSURE INCREASES CAN TRIGGER SEISMIC SLIP ON PREEXISTING CRITICALLY-STRESSED FAULTS. THE STATES OF TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA HAVE BEEN ESPECIALLY HIT HARD. WHILE MOST OF THE EARTHQUAKES (M3-M4) IN THESE STATES ARE SO SMALL ENOUGH AS TO RARELY CAUSE DAMAGE THERE WERE REPORTS OF DAMAGE FROM SOME OF THE LARGER EVENTS SUCH AS THE 2016 M5.8 PAWNEE OKLAHOMA EARTHQUAKE. IN ORDER TO ASSESS THE DAMAGE POTENTIAL OF GROUND MOTIONS FROM INDUCED AND TRIGGERED EARTHQUAKES WE NEED TO EXPLORE THE USE OF NEW DATA AND NEW MONITORING APPROACHES TO BETTER UNDERSTAND WHICH EARTHQUAKES ARE INDUCED WHICH WELLS THEY ARE ASSOCIATED WITH AND WHY SOME HIGH RATE WELLS EXPERIENCE SEISMICITY WHILE OTHERS DO NOT. TO RESPOND TO NASA EARTH SURFACE AND INTERIOR PROGRAM S CALL TO USE NASA S UNIQUE CAPABILITIES AND OBSERVATIONAL RESOURCES TO BETTER UNDER 1) WHAT ARE THE DYNAMICS OF THE EARTH S INTERIOR AND HOW DOES EARTH S SURFACE RESPOND; AND 2) HOW DO HUMAN ACTIVITIES IMPACT AND INTERACT WITH EARTH S SURFACE AND INTERIOR WE PROPOSE TO USE SPACEBORNE INTERFEROMETRIC SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (INSAR) DATA TO DETECT SURFACE DEFORMATION SIGNALS ASSOCIATED WITH HIGH RATE WASTEWATER INJECTIONS AND INDUCED SEISMIC EVENTS IN TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA. THESE MEASUREMENTS CAN THEN BE USED TO CONSTRAIN SUBSURFACE HYDROLOGIC MODELS AND QUANTIFY THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN INJECTION-RELATED STRESS PERTURBATION AND INDUCED SEISMICITY. OUR INITIAL STUDY AREAS INCLUDE THE FT. WORTH BASIN TX; SNYDER TX; PECOS TX; PAWNEE OK; AND CUSHING OK. IN THESE REGIONS INCREASED SEISMIC ACTIVITY HAS BEEN OBSERVED FOLLOWING THE INCREASED VOLUME OF WASTEWATER DISPOSAL SINCE 2009. A DENSE SEISMIC MONITORING NETWORK HAS BEEN INSTALLED BY THE BUREAU OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGY (BEG) AND THE CENTER FOR INTEGRATED SEISMICITY RESEARCH (CISR) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN (UT) AND EXTENSIVE STUDIES HAVE BEEN DONE ON SEISMICITY CHARACTERIZATION STRESS CHARACTERIZATION FAULT REACTIVATION ANALYSIS AND MAPPING AND RESERVOIR MODELING OF SEISMICITY MECHANICS. WE WILL DEMONSTRATE HOW INSAR DATA CAN BRING NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE EXISTING FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH INDUCED SEISMICITY. WHILE THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL START WITH CASE-BASED STUDIES WE WILL UTILIZE COMPUTATIONAL RESOURCES THROUGH NASA S HIGH-END COMPUTING (HEC) PROGRAM TO DESIGN A STATEWIDE INSAR INDUCED SEISMICITY DEFORMATION MONITORING NETWORK OVER THE ENTIRETY OF TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL ADVANCE THE STATE OF THE ART (SOA) INSAR PROCESSING STRATEGY AND DESIGN INNOVATIVE ALGORITHMS SUITABLE FOR LARGE-SCALE INSAR PROCESSING ON NASA S HEC FACILITIES. MAJOR INNOVATIONS INCLUDE: (1) A NEW INSAR PROCESSING ARCHITECTURE DESIGN THAT CAN EFFICIENTLY ADD NEW DATASETS TO EXISTING DATA REPOSITORIES WITH SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED STORAGE NEEDS AND COMPUTATIONAL COSTS; AND (2) THE USE OF MACHINE LEARNING AND DATA MINING ALGORITHMS TO PRODUCE ACCURATE DEFORMATION MAPS FROM A LARGE VOLUME OF HETEROGENEOUS QUALITY INSAR DATA WITHOUT MANUAL ANALYSIS. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL DEMONSTRATE THAT SPACEBORNE INSAR MISSIONS SUCH THE NASA-ISRO SAR MISSION (NISAR; PLANNED TO LAUNCH IN 2020) HAVE FUNDAMENTAL AND DIRECT VALUE FOR STATEWIDE INDUCED SEISMICITY RESEARCH.

$537,609FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

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