-
oa Earthquakes Triggered by Injection of Produced Water in North America: Implications for Large-Scale Storage of CO2
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, World CCUS Conference 2025, Sep 2025, Volume 2025, p.1 - 5
Abstract
Large-scale injection of supercritical CO2 into saline aquifers is an analogous process to the disposal of large volumes of saltwater co-produced with oil and gas (SWD). Large-scale SWD in saline aquifers over the past 15 years in the mid-continent of North America has caused a remarkable increase of intraplate seismicity. Since 2010, approximately 3.5 billion m3 of produced water has been injected into sedimentary layers that are in hydraulic communication with seismogenic geologic basement in Oklahoma and Texas alone, triggering more than 4,000 M ≥ 3.0 earthquakes. If large-scale CO2 storage projects are associated with induced seismicity, they could be perceived by the public as a hazardous activity which should not be allowed to continue. Earthquake sequences in crystalline basement are frequently triggered by very small pressure increases in overlaying injection zones, frequently about 1 MPa. Injection into sedimentary formations in hydrologic communication with faults in underlying seismogenic basement is responsible for all relatively large (M≥4) induced earthquakes associated with SWD to date and CO2 injection into such formations must be avoided.
