Source Parameters of Injection-induced Microseismicity

We analyze source parameters of microseismic events (MB 1) associated with high flow-rate water injections in a shale formation at a depth of 220 m. Two types of events were observed: several hundred impulsive events with clear P- and S-wave arrivals, and continuous emissions with peaked spectra detected well into the experiment. For a representative collection of impulsive events, an v 2 model provided satisfactory fits to displacement spectra corrected for attenuation, and average quality factors of 34 and 15 were obtained for P and S waves. P-wave first motion analysis and ES :EP ratios indicated the existence of a non-double-couple component in some events, particularly early in the experiment. A clear difference was observed for estimates of stress release parameters as non-doublecouple events had smaller stress drops and apparent stresses. The seismic efficiency of double-couple and non-double-couple events was limited to 0.9% and 0.05% respectively, with average values being 0.25% and 0.02%. A comparison of our results with those reported for a similar magnitude range in a hard-rock formation indicates considerably smaller estimates of stress drop and apparent stress in our case while seismic efficiencies are comparable.