Source analysis of a potential hydraulic‐fracturing‐induced earthquake near Fox Creek, Alberta
Open Access
- 17 December 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Geophysical Research Letters
- Vol. 43 (2) , 564-573
Abstract
An earthquake with a reported magnitude of 4.4 (ML) was detected on 13 June 2015 in western central Alberta, Canada. This event was the third felt earthquake this year near Fox Creek, a shale gas exploration region. Our results from full moment tensor inversions of regional broadband data show a strong strike‐slip mechanism with near‐vertical fault plane solutions. The decomposition of the moment tensor solution is overwhelmingly double couple, while only a modest (∼20%) contribution is attributed to compensated‐linear‐vector‐dipole. The depth of this earthquake is 3–4 km, near the base of the sedimentary layer, and the moment magnitude (M= 3.9) of this event is considerably smaller than the initial reportedMLvalue. The hypocenter location, depth, and mechanism are favorable to a possible association between this earthquake and hydraulic fracturing operations within the Duvernay shale.Keywords
Funding Information
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
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