Inversion of inherited thrusts by wastewater injection induced seismicity at the Val d'Agri oilfield (Italy).

ABSTRACT: Since 2006 wastewater has been injected below the Val d'Agri Quaternary basin, the largest on-land oilfield in Europe, inducing micro-seismicity in the proximity of a high-rate injection well. In this study, we have the rare opportunity to revise a massive set of 2D/3D seismic and deep borehole data in order to investigate the relationship between the active faults that bound the basin and the induced earthquakes. Below the injection site we identify a Pliocene thrusts and back-thrusts system inherited by the Apennines compression, with no relation with faults bounding the basin. The induced seismicity is mostly confined within the injection reservoir, and aligns coherently with a NE-dipping back-thrust favorably oriented within the current extensional stress field. Earthquakes spread upwa

SUBMITTER: Buttinelli M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5107892 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature