Geothermal power facility induces earthquakes, study finds

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://news.ucsc.edu/2013/07/geothermal-earthquakes.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Geothermal power facility induces earthquakes, study finds[/font]

July 11, 2013
By Tim Stephens

[font size=3]An analysis of earthquakes in the area around the Salton Sea Geothermal Field in southern California has found a strong correlation between seismic activity and operations for production of geothermal power, which involve pumping water into and out of an underground reservoir.

"We show that the earthquake rate in the Salton Sea tracks a combination of the volume of fluid removed from the ground for power generation and the volume of wastewater injected," said Emily Brodsky, a geophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and lead author of the study, published online in Science on July 11.

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Brodsky and coauthor Lia Lajoie, who worked on the project as a UCSC graduate student, studied earthquake records for the region from 1981 through 2012. They compared earthquake activity with production data for the geothermal power plant, including records of fluid injection and extraction. The power plant is a "flash-steam facility" which pulls hot water out of the ground, flashes it to steam to run turbines, and recaptures as much water as possible for injection back into the ground. Due to evaporative losses, less water is pumped back in than is pulled out, so the net effect is fluid extraction.

During the period of relatively low-level geothermal operations before 1986, the rate of earthquakes in the region was also low. Seismicity increased as the operations expanded. After 2001, both geothermal operations and seismicity climbed steadily.

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[Warpy]

1. Interesting

I think correlation has been found in other areas, also.