Array Processing in Microseismic Monitoring: Detection, Enhancement, and Localization of Induced Seismicity

Abstract

Current development of unconventional resources (such as shale gas, shale oil, and tight sands) requires hydraulic fracturing, which involves injecting fluid at high pressure into the subsurface reservoir. Such injections (or fluid production) cause stress changes in the reservoir. These stress changes often result in failure of the rocks with a concurrent release of seismic energy as seismic waves. The nature of seismic wave propagation in the subsurface media is complex. Based on the direction of propagation and the particle motion, body waves can be classified into P-waves (primary, compressional wave) and S-waves (secondary, shear wave). Passive seismic monitoring is based on recording these emitted waves and then using signal processing to extract characteristics such as amplitude, polarity, and arrival time, from which it is then feasible to estimate the location and character of the failure events.