CEE Seminar: Linking Fluid-Flow, Microearthquakes, and Fracture Seismic Imaging in the Brittle Crust

Mar 23

Saturday, March 23, 2024 - 7:20PM

Presenter

Peter Malin, Duke University, Adjunct Professor

The movement of unbound fluids in the brittle crust has long been a prime example of a problem in complex-and-non-linear systems: difficult to observe and account for at depths beyond several hundred meters. Beyond that point it is a fusion of multiphase chemistry and continuum-and-discontinuum mechanics, a mix of pressures, temperatures, and deviatoric stresses. Historically viewed either as a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical system or a structureless random process. The aim of this presentation is to bring something of a work-around past such deterministic and statistical endmembers. Instead, a third, more stochastic perspective - based on borehole logs, samples, and seismic images - is proposed. The concepts that guide this alternative approach come from studies of systems near transitions in their properties - in this case the way fluids end up flowing through effectively solid rock. The outcome provides some unexpected insights and practical applications - e.g., a potential accounting for microearthquake statistics and more realistic forecasts of hydraulic stimulation effects. https://duke.zoom.us/j/97283216160?pwd=TksvRlJoSStSSDhrNElvZzRFcFI2dz09
Meeting ID: 972 8321 6160
Passcode: 274932