Absolutly and definitly NO. earthquakes are due to factors far deeper and stronger than than the shallow potential perturbations possibly generated to the close neighborhood...
Dhia, don't you think indiscriminate drilling of boreholes can create weak zones within the subsurface structures?
In an area that is naturally aseismic, borehole drilling and construction cannot cause earthquake because of the very low magnitude of seismic wave that can be generated during these activities. However, borehole drilling and construction are parts of the anthropogenic activities that can trigger tremor.
IMO, vertical drilling would not cause a seismic event, However, a highly deviated or horizontal borehole collapsing could register as a micro-seismic event, but remember the hole sizes could be 8.5" or smaller. It would probably be considered as the ground settling, if noticeable at all on the surface.
The answer should remain no even if you consider depleted oil fields. The oil that was removed was filling pores in the rock and not supporting the overlying strata.
If you mean borehole drilling and then injecting (water) like in HDR projects (Switzerland) then it can generate some small earthquakes (M < 3).
Dear Colleagues,
It depends on what you construct. Enter "seismicity water reservoir" or "reservoir induced seismicity" in Google Scholar. Of course not the construction itself causes earthquakes, but the constructed object.
Kind regards, Balázs
According to our observations we could not see any relations as we believed. But highly deviated, horizontal borehole fracking processes can couse a micro-seismic tremors...
Borehole drilling can not cause earthquake, if at all, only micro seismicity.
For a borehole drilling we can't say earthquake; earthquake's a natural phenomenon. but here with drilling is an artificial provocation of soil, in geophysics we exploit these micro vibrations for getting more information about the region of drilling. see also (seismic recordings during drilling, micro seismic exploitation)
Drilling usually does not cause earthquakes. However, having mud weight thats higher than the formation’s pore pressure can induce fractures that affect the rocks natural stresses and could then lead to earthquakes. You can think ablut how Hydraulic fracturing is linked with earthquakes due to fluid being injected at high pressures. Same could occur if a driller exceeds the fracture gradient and fractures the formation. Ofcourse whether or not this would lead to an earthquake will depend on the stress states, geological properties such as faults present etc. And the pressures that caused that fracture to initiate
Every time we disturb the subsurface without our physical activities of which borehole drilling is one of them, we trigger some form of earthquake.
An activity like drilling, especially when it has to do with complex deviated wells which cut accross different unstable and inhomogeneous subsurface layers and structures such as major/regional faults can triger some low magnitide earthquake.
The question here should be if the triggered earthquake is significant enough to be felt on the surface
Borehole drilling may not result in earthquake phenomenon as earthquakes are triggered by the sudden movement of active faults. However, microtremors may result from borehole drilling and mining activities.
Borehole drilling and mining processes may produce some small scale earth tremors normally.
Borehole drilling and mining activities ma produces some small scale of earthquake, However, microtremors may result from borehole drilling and mining activities.
i think that borehole constructions and the used technics can not produce an earthquake as known! but may be a micro vibrations which will cause micro fractures in the formation to enhance permeability. these fractures will not be large enough to be compared to faults which could generate even small earthquakes. thanks.
I think that borehole drilling and mining may be produce a micro vibrations which will cause micro fractures in the formation and it can be recorded in seismograph. These fractures may be very small or may be large enough to make faults, and it could generate even small earthquakes if using some kinds of explosives.
Thanks
Hi Cyril,
You can cause an earthquake (as low as the magnitude can be) as long as the drilling activity triggers an in situ stress equal or greater to the stress drop that is relased by the earthquake. Typically,for natural earthquakes the stress drop after an eartquake is of the order of 3-10 MPa (30-100 bars), see Kanamori & Anderson (1977). Such stresses can only be obtained with hydraulic pumping (reservoir stimulation, fracking etc.), not during regular drilling operations such as coring or destructive drilling. It's also a question of drilling depth, induced seismicity has to my knowledge never occurred for drilling activities below
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