Violent Groundwater Eruption Triggered by a Distant Earthquake

Abstract

It is now well established that earthquakes cause various hydrogeological responses at distances thousands of kilometers from the epicenter. What remains unexplained is the large amplitude and intensity of some responses. Following the 2004 Mw 9.1 Sumatra earthquake, groundwater 3,200 km from the epicenter erupted violently from a well and formed a water fountain reaching a height exceeding 60 m. We model the relevant processes by combining tidal analysis of groundwater level with numerical simulations using a two‐dimensional finite‐element model. We suggest that the eruption resulted from a combination of factors, including a rapid increase of crustal permeability and runaway CO2 exsolution and bubble nucleation induced by the passage of seismic waves. Our results may have implications for some engineering applications such as oil production and CO2 sequestration, and the eruption of hydrothermal features such as geysers.

Application of difference method to Mw9.0 earthquake in Japan and Ms8.1 earthquake in Nepal

“…For some far-field earthquakes, when the seismic wave passes to the observation well, it will interact with the rock skeleton, and the fissure structure of the rock layer will change, leading to a certain deformation of the observation well-aquifer system medium, resulting in the change of the permeability of the aquifer. In terms of earthquake and aquifer permeability changes, previous studies conducted a large number of studies, revealing that stress accumulation, static stress generated by earthquake and dynamic stress in the process of seismic wave propagation can all lead to changes in crustal permeability [9][10][11][12][13]. When the permeability increases, the bore water level rises; when the permeability decreases, the bore water level decreases.…”

Far‐Field Groundwater Response to the Lamb Waves From the 2022 Hunga‐Tonga Volcano Eruption

“…Moreover, large earthquakes may cause tidal changes and WL phase shifts. For examples, the Mw 9.0 Tohoku earthquake resulted in significant WL changes (Sun et al., 2015), while the 2004 Mw 9.1 Sumatra earthquake led to groundwater eruption from a well in the mainland China, reaching a height over 30 m (Yan et al., 2022). Additionally, some studies have shown that the far‐field WL can be disturbed after major earthquakes (Huang & Zhang, 2022; Zhang et al., 2019), as stress acts on the rock strata, causing groundwater to move in and out of boreholes.…”