Abstracts Archive

One of the critical challenges in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is to ensure that the CO2 is stored safely in the reservoir over a long time. The approach is to monitor the stability based on seismic surveys that measure the change in seismic wave propagation as the amount of stored CO2 increases...

Unraveling the mechanisms underlying permeability control in unconventional reservoirs (shale, coal, and tight sandstones) is essential for accurate production forecasting, although it poses unique challenges. The complex interactions among various processes within the matrix, encompassing pore stru...

The ability to forecast earthquake timing would represent the most significant breakthrough in geohazard mitigation for our societies. Recent large-scale seismological observations in Baja California have shed light on the occurrence of strain localization and foreshock migration towards the epicent...

To curb global CO2 emissions, renewable energy (wind, solar) is increasingly becoming part of the energy mix, though its intermittent nature requires a form of energy storage and energy buffering. Large-scale, cyclic or seasonal, storage of excess renewable energy is best done in the form of hydroge...

The success of CO2 storage, nuclear waste disposal and energy storage in rock salt depends on the ability of the formation to prevent leakage of fluids injected in the subsurface. However, fractures, either pre-existing or induced, can provide flow paths that are orders of magnitude more conductive ...

Volcanoes are heterogeneous and unstable structures prone to collapse and, as such, they present a physical and economic risk to the population living in their proximity. Hydrothermal alteration, common to many volcanoes, changes rock strength and is thought to be involved in the process of stabilit...

The risk of induced seismicity is often managed using methods based on the empirical scaling relationship between fluid injection volumes and cumulative seismic moment. Mitigation options involve reducing the rate of fluids injection when induced earthquake magnitudes reach a certain threshold. Fiel...

We have worked on modelling seismic wave propagation in a laboratory experiment with multiple parallel fractures, using three different approaches for implementing fractures. The first approach is an explicit implementation (EX) of the displacement discontinuity with explicit fracture surfaces. The ...

I will summarize how machine learning (ML) is being used to predict lab earthquakes and how this work is being used to improve our understanding of earthquake physics. The lab works show: 1) that ML can predict the timing and magnitude of labquakes using acoustic emissions (AE) that originate in the...

Geothermal energy extraction changes reservoir pressure and temperature due to colder fluid injection, which impact the stress field. In naturally fractured or faulted reservoirs, stress changes introduce risks of fault reactivation and induced seismicity.  In this stud...

Extraction of natural gas from the Groningen gas field in the Netherlands has resulted in surface subsidence and induced seismicity, strongly impacting the environment and society. These phenomena are largely caused by compaction at the reservoir level, due to the decrease in gas pressure in the por...

to mitigate climate change, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered to be one of the most promising technologies to meet CO2 emission reduction targets. During CCS, CO2 is captured at the source (e.g. power plant or CO2-heavy industrial plant), transported and injected at depth into the subsu...

Human intervention in geothermal systems, such as fluid injection, can reactivate faults in the subsurface. This study investigates the Lower Carboniferous system and specifically the Dinantian formation. This specific formation is particularly interesting for deep geothermal energy (>100ºC) in the...

Faults and fractures are important geological features that need special attention in many engineering tasks. These discontinuities in the rock mass are key elements in seal integrity evaluations for subsurface CO2 storage. Stress changes associated with CO2 injection into reservoir formations can p...

High strain rates generated by moderate to large earthquake rupture cycles cause wall rock fragmentation, brecciation, and in-situ shattering, and enhance fluid flow in damage zones of continental thrust faults. This process reduces the rigidity of the hanging wall and raises the question of how han...

The interaction of different gases, effective stress, and complex pore structures impacts gas flow in unconventional reservoirs. However, our understanding of these petrophysical properties in organic-rich shale with fine pores and high matrix compressibility is limited, especially in depleted reser...

Chile is host to some of the most extensive natural resources in the world. However, these resources also pose some key challenges: the complex geology present - faults, rock heterogeneities and discontinuities. The aim of the GeoSafe project is to twofold: to develop a new collaboration between the...

Progress towards a net zero carbon economy involves subsurface activities, such as geothermal energy production and geological storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, that disturb tectonic stresses in the Earth's crust. Seismicity induced by such stress perturbations is associated with risk from dam...

Natural and artificial phenomenon such as dike formation, vein growth and mineralization, hydrocarbon extraction through hydraulic fracturing, gas outbursts in underground mines can be simulated in the laboratory by performing fluid-driven tensile fracturing experiments. For safety of the engineered...

In this study we have modelled a seismic velocity survey which took place in ONKALO underground research facility at Olkiluoto, Finland as part of a study for mapping the fractures in the Excavation Damage Zone (EDZ). The purpose of this work was to test the performance of the models used previously...

Cracks often initiate from grain boundaries, pores, or pre-existing cracks and then coalesce, a process which can lead to system-size failure. Analysing how fracture networks develop from pre-existing isolated cracks may provide knowledge of the preparation process leading to dynamic rupture. Recent...

We performed ultrasonic reflection measurements on a basalt sample from the Hellisheidi geothermal field, Iceland, as part of the Synergetic Utilisation of CO2 storage Coupled with geothermal EnErgy Deployment (SUCCEED) project. We performed the measurements on a sample, representing the geothermal-...

Geothermal energy is one of the renewable energy sources that can help mitigate climate change. Rocks are elasto-plastic materials at low pressure and temperature, and the deformation is accommodated along localized shear bands (brittle behavior); at high pressure and temperature rocks are elasto-vi...

The European Union is committed to achieving a climate-neutral industry by 2050. While the development of new sustainable energy sources is crucial, alternative solutions must be considered to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The ConsenCUS project has been established to address this challenge by...

The current models predicting fault geometry and growth are limited to theoretical considerations mostly from fracture mechanics theories (Rice, 1968; Palmer and Rice, 1973, Rudnicki, 1980) and restricted datasets from geological investigations. Consistent with fracture mechanics theories, in struct...

Faults can either serve as permeable pathways or seals for fluids at a variety of scales. Hydraulic conductivity and leakage rates from faults are one of the unresolved key issues within fault seal analysis, especially for CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) where reservoir integrity is critical, but also...

The global energy sector is transitioning to a more sustainable future. As a result, the use of depleted sandstone reservoirs for geo-engineering techniques including the storage of hydrogen gas, compressed air, and carbon dioxide will increase. These storage practises, as well as the production of ...

Neutron imaging provides direct observation of evolving water–air and deuterated water–normal water exchanges in flow experiments performed on a laboratory-deformed, microporous, extremely fine-grained laminated limestone. First D2O, then H2O, are injected into the sample base, and the l...

Under repeated loading and unloading, the mechanical response of brittle rock exhibits pronounced hysteresis characteristic which is related to its fundamental damage behavior. Quantitative analysis based on 4D X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT), and Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) techniques were con...

Parametric analysis of laboratory Acoustic Emission (AE) during rock deformation laboratory experiments on Alzo granite has revealed periodic trends and precursory behavior of the rupture source, as crack damage nucleates, it grows and coalesces into a fault zone (King et al., JGR, 2021). Numerical ...