Natural disasters
February 21, 2024
By Bettina Rector
Reading Time: Approximately 4 minutes
An unusual series of earthquakes in Canada may have been triggered by underground industrial activity. A study by German researchers has now confirmed this suspicion.
Photo: panthermedia.net/Chris Boswell
The discharge of industrial wastewater into the subsoil may have caused a series of earthquakes in the northern Canadian province of Alberta. There, especially in the area around the city of Peace River, there was a strong underground noise in 2022 and 2023.
A study by researchers led by Hannes Vasyura-Bathke and Torsten Dahm of the German Research Center (GFZ) in Potsdam and experts from Canada suggests that the observed seismic activity could be caused by the discharge of industrial wastewater. The research team relied on detailed analysis of earthquakes using seismographs and satellite-based radar data (InSAR). The study is published in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.
Are the series of earthquakes near Peace River man-made?
It all started in November 2022. Before the main quake reached 5.2 megawatts on November 30, the seismically quiet area around the Peace River was rocked by “smaller” earthquakes greater than 4.0. A series of aftershocks occurred on March 16, 2023, including two aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 and 4.6 megawatts. It is worth noting that extensive industrial activities have taken place in the area – such as massive sewage disposal and steam injection at different rock depths. , to take heavy oil. Activities such as fracking are probably excluded.
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First, it should be noted that earthquakes can certainly be triggered by human activity. They usually occur in areas of weakness in the rock, and their course is similar to that of natural earthquakes. But they usually start at a shallower depth. Although the area is seismically quiet, an earthquake has occurred about 500 km from Peace River.
Researchers reconstructed earthquake events
The main earthquake and 130 minor aftershocks were studied. Preliminary scientific studies explain that the earthquakes were caused by the injection of waste water into a deep well located about 3.5 km east of the epicenter of the main earthquake. It extends into a saline aquifer system known as the Leduc Formation.
The GFZ team – with the support of experts from the University of Calgary, the “Canadian Hazards Information Service” and the “Canada Center for Mapping and Earth Observation” – has now been able to identify the source and more precise path of 132 earthquakes. The decay properties of eight key cases are reconstructed. The distribution of earthquakes shows the anatomy of a fracture system with four nearly parallel weak zones in the rock, which extends to the northwest and favors reactivation under current stress conditions. However, these are cut by a transverse fault zone that is difficult to reactivate. Some parts of the weak zones shown have not yet ruptured, indicating seismic risk.
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“Our results support the conclusion that discharge of wastewater into the Leduc formation plays an important role in triggering this sequence,” summarizes Hannes Wassyura-Bathke. “If the estimate is correct, the main shock of this series would be the largest human-induced earthquake in western Canada to date.”
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