Our goal was to further investigate the relationship between oil and gas operations and earthquakes. A relationship between the two has already been established in a number of locations, including Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Canada, England, and China. This study looks at Arkansas, which has not been the focus of prior research. This project analyzed a small area of interest in Van Buren and Faulkner counties, using a technique called “template matching”, which relies on a computer to compare all of the recorded seismograms looking for similar earthquakes. The template matching technique works on the same principle as fingerprint scanning, where the known earthquake template is compared to seismograms using cross-correlation to determine whether the potential matches have similar patterns. This technique can identify much smaller earthquakes than traditional earthquake detectors which enables a more complete analysis of the patterns in space and time. Earthquake detections from template matching and hydraulic fracture (HF) well data from the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission were used to investigate the relationships. This analysis identified four clusters of earthquakes spatially and temporally correlated with HF during 2012 and 2013. Earthquakes were observed at the end of HF and most earthquakes occurred in a 1 km wide area despite over 50 wells in an area wider than 10 km. Most of the earthquakes occur on or near a small east-west normal fault in southern Van Buren county (VanArsdale & Schweig, 1990). The wells correlated with these earthquakes have well paths running towards or through the fault. Further understanding of the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and earthquakes can allow us to provide better information to industry and regulators so that they can take action and limit the number of earthquakes.
Author: Grant Taylor, Geology and Geographic Information Science Major
Faculty Advisor: Mike Brudzinski, Geology
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