Oklahoma experiences largest earthquake during ongoing regional wastewater injection hazard mitigation efforts

Abstract

The 3 September 2016, Mw 5.8 Pawnee earthquake was the largest recorded earthquake in the state of Oklahoma. Seismic and geodetic observations of the Pawnee sequence, including precise hypocenter locations and moment tensor modeling, shows that the Pawnee earthquake occurred on a previously unknown left‐lateral strike‐slip basement fault that intersects the mapped right‐lateral Labette fault zone. The Pawnee earthquake is part of an unprecedented increase in the earthquake rate in Oklahoma that is largely considered the result of the deep injection of waste fluids from oil and gas production. If this is, indeed, the case for the M5.8 Pawnee earthquake, then this would be the largest event to have been induced by fluid injection. Since 2015, Oklahoma has undergone wide‐scale mitigation efforts primarily aimed at reducing injection volumes. Thus far in 2016, the rate of M3 and greater earthquakes has decreased as compared to 2015, while the cumulative moment—or energy released from earthquakes—has increased. This highlights the difficulty in earthquake hazard mitigation efforts given the poorly understood long‐term diffusive effects of wastewater injection and their connection to seismicity.

A Possible Causative Mechanism of Raton Basin, New Mexico and Colorado Earthquakes Using Recent Seismicity Patterns and Pore Pressure Modeling

“…Three moment tensors in the Vermejo Park seismic lineament are consistent in strike with our interpretation of a north‐south striking normal fault (Figure c). If the Vermejo Park fault is one continuous fault, the length is greater than the Pawnee fault in Oklahoma on which a M W 5.8 earthquake occurred (Yeck et al, ) and similar in length to the Fairview fault, also in Oklahoma, on which a M W 5.1 earthquake occurred (Yeck et al, ). In 2005, a M Wc 5.0 earthquake occurred near the north of the Vermejo Park fault, the largest earthquake in New Mexico Raton Basin in the USGS ComCat (U.S. Geological Survey, ).…”

Accelerated Fill‐Up of the Arbuckle Group Aquifer and Links to U.S. Midcontinent Seismicity

“…Although the Arbuckle has been an industrial wastewater disposal target for more than 70 years (Carr et al, ), a surge in seismicity in the midcontinent since 2009, linked to wastewater injection, is challenging assumptions about the safety and longevity of the aquifer for fluid disposal (Hincks et al, ; Keranen et al, ; Rubinstein & Mahani, ; Walsh & Zoback, ). The majority of these midcontinent earthquakes, including the four largest events (2016 M 5.8 Pawnee earthquake, 2011 M 5.7 Prague earthquake, 2016 M 5.1 Fairview earthquake, and 2016 M 5.0 Cushing earthquake), have occurred in Oklahoma (Yeck et al, ). Seismicity has also spiked in Kansas, with 127 M 3+ earthquakes during 2013–2016 period and the second highest earthquake rate in the central United States (Rubinstein et al, ).…”

Aseismic Motions Drive a Sparse Seismicity During Fluid Injections Into a Fractured Zone in a Carbonate Reservoir

“…This type of seismicity is generally of small moment magnitude ( M w < 3). However, some of these injection‐induced earthquakes have reached magnitudes greater than 5 (Ellsworth, ; Keranen et al, ; Petersen et al, ; Weingarten et al, ), such as the 2011 M w 5.6 Prague (Barnhart et al, ; Keranen et al, ; Norbeck & Horne, ; Sumy et al, ; Sun & Hartzell, ) or the September 2016 M w 5.8 Pawnee (Walter et al, ; Yeck et al, ) earthquakes in Oklahoma, USA.…”