HomeProjectsSustainable Development and Green TechnologiesEarthquakes in the Shale Gas blocks in Sichuan Basin, China

Earthquakes in the Shale Gas blocks in Sichuan Basin, China

Project Quick Facts

Principal Investigator

  • Prof. YANG Hongfeng

    Earth System Science Programme

  • Funding Sources

    Research Grants Council

  • Collaboration

    Sichuan Earthquake Agency

As one critical component towards carbon neutrality, clean energy is in dire need and has been actively developed in a number of countries. Benefiting from recent technical advances, shale gas has been actively developed in the past two decades with a boosted production volume. However, earthquakes that produced significant damages were found in different shale gas fields, raising significant concerns on how to balance the need for energy and mitigate risks of the induced earthquakes. The research results can be applied to earthquake monitoring in the shale gas field and mitigating earthquake risks.

Upper figure: Global earthquake distribution and plate boundaries. Bottom figure: Felt earthquakes since 1997 and historical earthquakes near Hong Kong
Triggering mechanisms of hydraulic fracturing induced earthquakes – poroelasticity, pore pressure, and aseismic slip

Uniqueness and Competitive Advantages:

  • AI-based earthquake pattern detection
  • Dense array observations
  • Multidisciplinary investigations
Field trip photos for Weiyuan, Sichuan, China. Left figure: Shale gas field. Right figure: The deployment of dense array

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