| Title | Determination of local magnitude for induced earthquakes in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin: an update |
| |
| Author | Babaie Mahani, A; Kao, H |
| Source | Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Recorder vol. 45, issue 6, 2020 p. 1-12  Open Access |
| Links | Online - En ligne
|
| Image |  |
| Year | 2020 |
| Alt Series | Natural Resources Canada, Contribution Series 20200022 |
| Publisher | Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf; html |
| Province | Alberta; British Columbia |
| NTS | 83; 84; 93; 94; 103A; 103H; 103I; 103P; 104A; 104H; 104I; 104P |
| Lat/Long WENS | -131.0000 -113.0000 60.0000 52.0000 |
| Subjects | geophysics; Science and Technology; Nature and Environment; Health and Safety; seismology; earthquake risk; seismicity; earthquake magnitudes; attenuation; earthquake catalogues; seismographs;
seismological network; Western Canada Sedimentary Basin |
| Illustrations | plots; histograms; tables; photographs |
| Program | Environmental Geoscience Shale Gas - induced seismicity |
| Released | 2020 05 19 |
| Abstract | Reliable determination of local magnitude (ML) is crucial for monitoring of induced seismicity. Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) uses the original definition of the Richter scale to estimate ML, which
was designed for southern California in 1935. Since the NRCan-reported magnitude values are routinely used by regulatory agencies in Alberta and British Columbia to ensure proper assessment and mitigation of seismic hazard caused by induced
seismicity, modification to the Richter magnitude formula to better reflect the local attenuation characteristics of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) is important and necessary. Using the 2014-2016 comprehensive earthquake catalogue
reported by Visser et al. (2017), Babaie Mahani and Kao (2018; referred to hereafter as BMK18) calibrated the distance correction factors used in the determination of ML for WCSB events. With the recent deployment of additional seismograph stations
in the WCSB region, more data (especially at close epicentral distances) became available (Visser et al. 2020). In this study, we present an update on the BMK18 ML determination using a comprehensive dataset of earthquakes for the period of 2014-2018
(inclusive). We compare our results with those determined by BMK18 and Yenier (2017; referred to hereafter as Y17). Moreover, we calculate ML for events located by a local private seismograph array using the updated model, the original formula of
BMK18, and the formula of Y17, and provide a detailed comparison of all the results to demonstrate the performance of each model. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
Reliable determination of local magnitude (ML) is crucial for monitoring of induced seismicity. Because NRCan-reported magnitude values are routinely
used by regulatory agencies in Alberta and British Columbia to ensure proper assessment and mitigation of seismic hazard caused by induced seismicity, modification to the Richter magnitude formula to better reflect the local attenuation
characteristics of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) is important and necessary. In this study, we present an update on the ML formula using the most comprehensive dataset of earthquakes in WCSB between 2014 and 2018. The revised ML formula
provides a consistent estimate of ML from stations over a wide distance range. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 323667 |
|
|