世界地热大会集澳大利亚425wgc报告.pdfVIP

ProceedingsWorldGeothermalCongress2015

Melbourne,Australia,19-25April2015

NewZealandGeothermalInducedSeismicity:anoverview

11121

StevenSherburn,ChrisBromley,StephenBannister,StevenSewell,SandraBourguignon

1GNSScience,WairakeiResearchCentre,Bag2000,Taupo3352,NewZealand

2

MightyRiverPowerLimited,283VaughanRoad,Rotorua3010

s.sherburn@gns.cri.nz,c.bromley@gns.cri.nz

Keywords:inducedseismicity,triggeredmicro-earthquakes,reinjectionmanagement,permeabilityenhancement

NewZealand’sgeothermalsystemsaremostlylocatedinhigh-temperature,volcano-tectonicsettings,butbackgroundlevelsof

localnaturalmicroseismicity(micro-earthquakes)arequitevariable.Triggeredorinducedseismicityeffectsfromgeothermal

operationshavealsobeenverymixed.Understandingthereasonsforthesedifferencesleadstobettercomprehensionofthe

potentialseismicrisksandrewards(oropportunities)ofdifferentdevelopmentoptions.

Large-scaleNZgeothermalprojectsstartedinthelate1950’s,butreinjection,themostcommonlyattributedcauseofinduced

seismicity,onlycommencedinthemid1980’s(atWairakei).Here,initialinjectiontrialswererelativelyshallow(~1.3km)and

triggeredsomelocallow-magnitudemicroseismicity,athigheffectivestimulationpressure(~5MPa).Other,low-pressure,

reinjectionprojectssoonfollowed,withsubsequentchangesininjectionstrategy(depth,location,in-situtemperature,pressureand

flow-rate).Th