New Mexico Geological Society Annual Spring Meeting — Abstracts

Induced seismicity is a human generated phenomenon that causes a release of seismic stress in the crust through human activities such as surface and underground mining, impoundment of reservoirs, withdrawal of fluids and gas from the subsurface, and injection of fluids into underground cavities. The New Mexico section of the Permian basin is in an active area of oil and gas production. The region is also the home of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a geologic repository for radioactive waste, located just east of Carlsbad, NM, close to the region of active industry activity. Small magnitude earthquakes have been recognized in the area for many years, recorded by a network of short period vertical component seismometers operated by New Mexico Tech. However, for robust comparisons between the seismicity patterns and the injection well locations and rates, improved locations and a more complete catalog over time are necessary. Here we present a revised catalog of earthquakes in this area, with improved locations resulting from the addition of data from the 3-component broadband EarthScope Flexible Array SIEDCAR experiment that operated in the area between 2008-2011. Known events are relocated with the additional phase picks from the SIEDCAR stations and compared with the injection well locations. We also use the known events as templates for a waveform scanning effort to identify additional events that occurred within the time period. This more complete seismicity catalog is then compared with the available monthly injection rates during this time period.