Hypocenter uncertainty analysis of induced and tectonic earthquakes in the Netherlands

Abstract

Induced earthquakes tend to be shallow, while tectonic events often occur in deeper parts of the Earth. A well-estimated hypocenter with uncertainties may help to evaluate whether an event is of an induced or tectonic origin. In this study, we focus on the development of a hypocenter method that helps to better define the source location of an earthquake and reduce the spatial error of the measurement. The hypocenter and the uncertainty is obtained by using the P- and S-wave phase time difference for a station and the P-wave traveltime differences between pairs of stations simultaneously in the hypocenter analysis. The uncertainty inherent to an imperfect reference velocity model, modelling, instrumental inaccuracy and phase time picking is propagated into the spacial hypocenter solution. A refined hypocenter methodology is successfully tested in a synthetic experiment with shallow (∼ 5 km), intermediate (∼ 10 km) and deep source points (∼ 15 km). The synthetic experiment indeed shows that it is possible to separate earthquakes by their depth solution, hence offering an indication that the event is either induced or tectonic. Case studies are presented of estimations of hypocenters and error ellipses for (1) induced seismicity at sites for gas storage in salt domes, geothermal production and gas extraction as well as (2) tectonic events.