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SUMMARYThe hydraulic fracturing technique is used for resource production, such as in shale gas/oil extraction and enhanced geothermal systems. The effects of fracturing are often monitored via induced earthquakes, and obtaining as much information as possible from those earthquakes is desirable. The stress drop—calculated from the seismic moment Mo and corner frequency fc—is an earthquake-related parameter that can help identify additional characteristics of the seismicity. To investigate the relationship between stress drops and hydraulically induced seismic events, we estimated the Mo and fc of acoustic emission (AE) events during hydraulic fracturing experiments performed in the laboratory in previous studies using 2 Eagle Ford shale and 10 Kurokami-jima granite samples. We estimated Mo by fitting the theoretical spectra to the observed spectra after correcting for the following effects: (1) frequency response of AE transducers under the installation method used in the fracturing experiment, including differences in sensitivity across every transducer used in each experiment; and (2) the difference in radiation pattern coefficients, which depends on the focal mechanisms of each AE event. This analysis used 46 857 focal mechanisms obtained from moment tensor solutions estimated using a deep learning technique. The range of the resultant Mo was found to be 2.8 × 10–5 ≤ Mo ≤ 4.5 × 10–1 [N·m], corresponding to −9.1 ≤ Mw ≤ −6.3, where Mw is the moment magnitude. We also estimated fc using the multiple-empirical Green's function method, reducing the influence of modelling errors in the AE sensor response and transfer function of the medium. Out of the 1053 events whose Mo and fc were estimated, 465 events (44.2 per cent)—regardless of their focal mechanisms—were found to have Mo and fc values consistent with the constant stress drop scaling of shear failure (i.e. shear failures have 0.1–100 MPa stress drops independent of their magnitude) that has been repeatedly confirmed in many previous studies. The remaining events showed lower fc values than those expected from the scaling law. This indicates that high pore pressure in a source region induced by fluid stimulation contributes to the occurrence of low-frequency earthquakes. Overall, we demonstrated that source parameter estimation was possible for laboratory AEs induced by hydraulic fracturing, which can improve our understanding of the characteristics of fluid-induced earthquakes.

SUMMARYTo investigate the influence of fluid viscosity on the fracturing process, we conducted hydraulic fracturing experiments on Kurokami-jima granite specimens with resins of various viscosities. We monitored the acoustic emission (AE) activity during fracturing and estimated the moment tensor (MT) solutions for 54 727 AE events using a deep learning technique. We observed the breakdown at 14–22 MPa of borehole pressure, which was dependent on the viscosity, as well as two preparatory phases accompanying the expansion of AE-active regions. The first expansion phase typically began at 10–30 per cent of the breakdown pressure, where AEs occurred three-dimensionally surrounding the wellbore and their active region expanded with time towards the external boundaries of the specimen. The MT solutions of these AEs corresponded to crack-opening (tensile) events in various orientations. The second expansion phase began at 90–99 per cent of the breakdown pressure. During this phase, a new planar AE distribution emerged from the borehole and expanded along the maximum compression axis, and the focal mechanisms of these AEs corresponded to the tensile events on the AE-delineating plane. We interpreted that the first phase was induced by fluid penetration into pre-existing microcracks, such as grain boundaries, and the second phase corresponded to the main fracture formation. Significant dependences on fluid viscosity were observed in the borehole pressure at the time of main fracture initiation and in the speed of the fracture propagation in the second phase. The AE activity observed in the present study was fairly complex compared to that observed in previous experiments conducted on tight shale samples. This difference indicates the importance of the interaction between the fracturing fluid and pre-existing microcracks in the fracturing process.

SUMMARYHydraulic fracturing plays a vital role in the development of unconventional energy resources, such as shale gas/oil and enhanced geothermal systems to increase the permeability of tight rocks. In this study, we conducted hydraulic fracturing experiments in a laboratory using carbonate-rich outcrop samples of Eagle Ford shale from the United States. We used a thermosetting acrylic resin containing a fluorescent compound as a fracturing fluid. Immediately after fracturing, the liquid resin penetrated in the fractured blocks was hardened by applying heat. Then, the crack was viewed under UV irradiation, where the fluorescent resin allowed the induced fracture to be clearly observed, indicating the formation of simple, thin bi-wing planar fractures. We observed the detailed structure of the fractures from microscopy of thin cross-sections, and found that their complexity and width varied with the distance from the wellbore. This likely reflects the change in the stress state around the tip of the growing fracture. The interaction between fractures and constituent grains/other inclusions (e.g. organic substances) seemed to increase the complexity of the fractures, which may contribute to the efficient production of shale gas/oil via hydraulic fracturing. We first detected acoustic emission (AE) signals several seconds before the peak fluid pressure was observed, and the active region gradually migrated along the microscopically observed fracture with increasing magnitude. Immediately after the peak pressure was observed, the fluid pressure dropped suddenly (breakdown) with large seismic waves that were probably radiated by dynamic propagation of the fracture; thereafter, the AE activity stopped. We applied moment tensor inversion for the obtained AE events by carefully correcting the AE sensor characteristics. Almost all of the solutions corresponded to tensile events that had a crack plane along the maximum compression axis, as would be expected based on the conventional theory of hydraulic fracturing. Such domination of tensile events has not been reported in previous studies based on laboratory/in situ experiments, where shear events were often dominant. The extreme domination of the tensile events in the present study is possibly a result of the use of rock samples without any significant pre-existing cracks. Our experiments revealed the fracturing behaviour and accompanying seismic activities of very tight rocks in detail, which will be helpful to our understanding of fracturing behaviour in shale gas/oil resource production.

The preparation process of natural earthquakes is still difficult to quantify and remains a subject of debate even with modern observational techniques. Here, we show that foreshock activity can shed light on understanding the earthquake preparation process based on results of meter-scale rock friction experiments. Experiments were conducted under two different fault surface conditions before each run: less heterogeneous fault without pre-existing gouge and more heterogeneous fault with pre-existing gouge. The results show that fewer foreshocks occurred along the less heterogeneous fault and were driven by preslip; in contrast, more foreshocks with a lower b value occurred along the more heterogeneous fault and showed features of cascade-up. We suggest that the fault surface condition and the stress redistribution caused by the ongoing fault slip mode control the earthquake preparation process, including the behavior of foreshock activity. Our findings imply that foreshock activity can be a key indicator for probing the fault conditions at present and in the future, and therefore useful for assessing earthquake hazard., By tuning fault surface heterogeneity, the authors report earthquake preparation processes respectively driven by preslip and cascade-up on a meter-scale laboratory fault. The findings suggest that foreshock activity can be useful for predicting when and how the impending mainshock will occur.

Moment Tensors of hydraulically induced AEs: Hydraulic fracturing is an important technique in the development of enhanced geothermal systems and unconventional resources. Although the fracture modes induced by hydraulic fracturing influence the recovery efficiency of the resources, the current understanding of this relationship is insufficient. In this study, we considered the acoustic emissions (AEs) induced during hydraulic fracturing under uniaxial loading conditions in the laboratory, and applied a moment tensor analysis by carefully correcting the coupling condition and directivity of AE transducers. Experiments were conducted for two types of Kurokami–jima granite samples: those with a rift plane perpendicular (Type H) or parallel (Type V) to the expected direction of fracture propagation (i.e. along the loading axis). In the experiments, both sample types experienced a significant number of shear, tensile and compressive events. The dominant fracture mode for Type H samples is found to be tensile events in which the fracture plane is parallel to the loading axis, whereas for Type V samples, shear events are dominant. This difference suggests that the dominant fracture modes induced by hydraulic fracturing are highly dependent on the relationship between the direction of fracture propagation and orientation of pre-existing weak planes.

Laboratory experiments with seismic measurements have the potential to be highly useful for understanding the physical process of water-induced landslides, and fundamental experiments are helpful for the appropriate interpretation of recorded seismograms. We developed a laboratory measurement system to investigate the relationships between wave propagation and water saturation in sand. We considered that the wavelength should be comparable to or sufficiently shorter than the sensing intervals. Furthermore, we embedded a wave source that can repeatedly emit an arbitrary and identical signal in an octave frequency band under both dry and nearly saturated conditions. We measured the transmitted waves by embedded accelerometers over 24 h under dry and nearly saturated conditions. The difference in the slowness between the two conditions was one-thousand-fold larger than the fluctuations in slowness over 24 h for each condition. Also, the difference in amplitude between the two conditions was about double the fluctuations in amplitude over 24 h for each condition. These results suggested that our system can monitor the water content change in sand via the change in spectral amplitude and phase slowness.

We propose an objective threshold determination method for detecting outliers from the empirical distribution of cross-correlation coefficients among seismic waveforms. This method is aimed at dete...

We conduct meter-scale rock friction experiments to study strain rate effect on fault slip and rupture evolution. Two rock samples made of Indian metagabbro, with a nominal contact dimension of 1.5 m long and 0.1 m wide, are juxtaposed and loaded in a direct shear configuration to simulate the fault motion. A series of experimental tests, under constant loading rates ranging from 0.01 mm/s to 1 mm/s and under a fixed normal stress of 6.7 MPa, are performed to simulate conditions with changing strain rates. Load cells and displacement transducers are utilized to examine the macroscopic fault behavior, while high-density arrays of strain gauges close to the fault are used to investigate the local fault behavior. The observations show that the macroscopic peak strength, strength drop, and the rate of strength drop can increase with increasing loading rate. At the local scale, the observations reveal that slow loading rates favor generation of characteristic ruptures that always nucleate in the form of slow slip at about the same location. In contrast, fast loading rates can promote very abrupt rupture nucleation and along-strike scatter of hypocenter locations. At a given propagation distance, rupture speed tends to increase with increasing loading rate. We propose that a strain-rate-dependent fault fragmentation process can enhance the efficiency of fault healing during the stick period, which together with healing time controls the recovery of fault strength. In addition, a strain-rate-dependent weakening mechanism can be activated during the slip period, which together with strain energy selects the modes of fault slip and rupture propagation. The results help to understand the spectrum of fault slip and rock deformation modes in nature, and emphasize the role of heterogeneity in tuning fault behavior under different strain rates.

We investigate the effect of fault surface roughness on rupture preparation characteristics using meter-scale metagabbro specimens. We repeatedly conducted the experiments with the same pair of rock specimens to make the fault surface rough. We obtained three experimental results under the same experimental conditions (6.7 MPa of normal stress and 0.01 mm/s of loading rate) but at different roughness conditions (smooth, moderately roughened, and heavily roughened). During each experiment, we observed many stick-slip events preceded by precursory slow slip. We investigated when and where slow slip initiated by using the strain gauge data processed by the Kalman filter algorithm. The observed rupture preparation processes on the smooth fault (i.e. the first experiment among the three) showed high repeatability of the spatiotemporal distributions of slow slip initiation. Local stress measurements revealed that slow slip initiated around the region where the ratio of shear to normal stress (τ/σ) was the highest as expected from finite element method (FEM) modeling. However, the exact location of slow slip initiation was where τ/σ became locally minimum, probably due to the frictional heterogeneity. In the experiment on the moderately roughened fault, some irregular events were observed, though the basic characteristics of other regular events were similar to those on the smooth fault. Local stress data revealed that the spatiotemporal characteristics of slow slip initiation and the resulting τ/σ drop for irregular events were different from those for regular ones even under similar stress conditions. On the heavily roughened fault, the location of slow slip initiation was not consistent with τ/σ anymore because of the highly heterogeneous static friction on the fault, which also decreased the repeatability of spatiotemporal distributions of slow slip initiation. These results suggest that fault surface roughness strongly controls the rupture preparation process, and generally increases its complexity with the degree of roughness.

We were able to successfully capture rupture nucleation processes on a 2-D fault surface during large-scale biaxial friction experiments using metagabbro rock specimens. Several rupture nucleation patterns have been detected by a strain gauge array embedded inside the rock specimens as well as by that installed along the edge walls of the fault. In most cases, the unstable rupture started just after the rupture front touched both ends of the rock specimen (i.e., when rupture front extended to the entire width of the fault). In some cases, rupture initiated at multiple locations and the rupture fronts coalesced to generate unstable ruptures, which could only be detected from the observation inside the rock specimen. Therefore, we need to carefully examine the 2-D nucleation process of the rupture especially when analyzing the data measured only outside the rock specimen. At least the measurements should be done at both sides of the fault to identify the asymmetric rupture propagation on the fault surface, although this is not perfect yet. In the present experiment, we observed three typical types of the 2-D rupture propagation patterns, two of which were initiated at a single location either close to the fault edge or inside the fault. This initiation could be accelerated by the free surface effect at the fault edge. The third one was initiated at multiple locations and had a rupture coalescence at the middle of the fault. These geometrically complicated rupture initiation patterns are important for understanding the earthquake nucleation process in nature.

We investigated the relation between seismic events and fractures induced by hydraulic fracturing in laboratory experiments under uniaxial loading conditions using granite and shale blocks by monitoring acoustic emissions (AEs). We used a thermosetting acrylic resin mixed with a fluorescent compound as the fracturing fluid and fixed it within the blocks by heating immediately after fracturing. This allowed observation of fluid penetration regions and fracturing patterns on cross-sectional planes under ultraviolet light irradiation. The obtained AE hypocenters and resin penetration regions observed after the fracturing extended on both wings along the loading axis from the fracturing hole for all the samples. This was as expected theoretically, although the AEs were concentrated primarily on only one side for some samples. Patterns of wellbore pressurization histories, AE activities, and resin penetration regions were significantly different between the two rock types. In the experiments using granite samples, wellbore pressure increased linearly until 87.2–97.4% of the peak pressure, followed by a gradual decrease of the rate and sudden drop of pressure (breakdown). AEs started to occur at 49.6–93.2% of the peak pressure, significantly before the breakdown. Resin penetration regions have a width of 10–30 mm and such wide penetration regions resulted in indistinguishable main fractures. For the shale samples, both the nonlinearity of the wellbore pressure–time curve and the AE activity were initiated immediately before breakdown. The number of detected AEs was much smaller than for the granites. Resin in the rock samples showed thin traces with widths of

In metre-sized rock specimens, rock friction starts to decrease at a much smaller work rate than in centimetre-sized rock specimens, thus demonstrating that rock friction is scale-dependent. Frictional sliding at faults controls the rupture of earthquakes and much effort has gone into the study of the frictional properties of rocks in laboratory experiments. This study shows that previously used scaling of results obtained in lab studies investigating the Earth's crust didn't accurately take into account the effect of sample size. Futoshi Yamashita et al. used metre-sized rock specimens — not the centimetre-sized samples commonly used — and demonstrate that friction in the metre-size range starts to decrease at a work rate that is an order of magnitude smaller than that of the smaller specimens. The authors propose that stress-concentrated areas exist in which more gouge materials are produced due to frictional slip, resulting in further stress concentrations at these areas. As such heterogeneity is common in nature, the authors conclude that a natural fault could lose its strength faster than that expected from the properties estimated from small rock samples. Determination of the frictional properties of rocks is crucial for an understanding of earthquake mechanics, because most earthquakes are caused by frictional sliding along faults. Prior studies using rotary shear apparatus1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 revealed a marked decrease in frictional strength, which can cause a large stress drop and strong shaking, with increasing slip rate and increasing work rate. (The mechanical work rate per unit area equals the product of the shear stress and the slip rate.) However, those important findings were obtained in experiments using rock specimens with dimensions of only several centimetres, which are much smaller than the dimensions of a natural fault (of the order of 1,000 metres). Here we use a large-scale biaxial friction apparatus with metre-sized rock specimens to investigate scale-dependent rock friction. The experiments show that rock friction in metre-sized rock specimens starts to decrease at a work rate that is one order of magnitude smaller than that in centimetre-sized rock specimens. Mechanical, visual and material observations suggest that slip-evolved stress heterogeneity on the fault accounts for the difference. On the basis of these observations, we propose that stress-concentrated areas exist in which frictional slip produces more wear materials (gouge) than in areas outside, resulting in further stress concentrations at these areas. Shear stress on the fault is primarily sustained by stress-concentrated areas that undergo a high work rate, so those areas should weaken rapidly and cause the macroscopic frictional strength to decrease abruptly. To verify this idea, we conducted numerical simulations assuming that local friction follows the frictional properties observed on centimetre-sized rock specimens. The simulations reproduced the macroscopic frictional properties observed on the metre-sized rock specimens. Given that localized stress concentrations commonly occur naturally, our results suggest that a natural fault may lose its strength faster than would be expected from the properties estimated from centimetre-sized rock samples.

We observed very small repeating earthquakes with −5.1 ≤ Mw ≤ −3.6 on a geological fault at 1 km depth in a gold mine in South Africa. Of the 851 acoustic emissions that occurred on the fault during the 2 month analysis period, 45% were identified as repeaters on the basis of waveform similarity and relative locations. They occurred steadily at the same location with similar magnitudes, analogous to repeaters at plate boundaries, suggesting that they are repeat ruptures of the same asperity loaded by the surrounding aseismic slip (background creep). Application of the Nadeau and Johnson (1998) empirical formula (NJ formula), which relates the amount of background creep and repeater activity and is well established for plate boundary faults, to the present case yielded an impossibly large estimate of the background creep. This means that the presently studied repeaters were produced more efficiently, for a given amount of background creep, than expected from the NJ formula. When combined with an independently estimated average stress drop of 16 MPa, which is not particularly high, it suggests that the small asperities of the presently studied repeaters had a high seismic coupling (almost unity), in contrast to one physical interpretation of the plate boundary repeaters. The productivity of such repeaters, per unit background creep, is expected to increase strongly as smaller repeaters are considered (∝ Mo −1/3 as opposed to Mo −1/6 of the NJ formula), which may be usable to estimate very slow creep that may occur on intraplate faults.

We applied advanced mapping techniques to 291 230 acoustic emission (AE) events as small as around M −4 that were recorded over 50 days by an ultra-high resolution network close to the active front of a tabular mining stope being advanced northward at 1 km depth in the Cooke 4 Gold Mine in South Africa. We first applied joint hypocenter determination (JHD) to improve absolute locations, and then applied the double-difference relative location algorithm to the JHD output. These steps resolved the seemingly continuous, dense cloud of AEs that extend about 20 m ahead of the stope front into several discrete, steeply dipping tabular clusters a few meters thick and 10–30 m in dip extent, separated by quiet intervals a few meters thick. The clusters have a strike parallel to the stope face and a dip of about 65°, resembling commonly observed large shear fractures along the plane of maximum shear (Ortlepp shears). In general, the activity of the clusters changed in similar ways as the stope face advanced, but each cluster remained stationary and the gaps between clusters were impressively quiet. This study demonstrates that high-resolution AE mapping can delineate the formation of large structures of localized damage in the highly stressed intact rock mass ahead of the stope face, a process that may culminate in hazardous seismic events.

Using a network of sensitive high-frequency acoustic emission sensors, we observed foreshock activity of an Mw 2.2 earthquake (main shock) in a deep gold mine in South Africa. Foreshock activity, which selectively occurred on a part of the rupture plane of the forthcoming main shock, lasted for at least 6 months until the main shock. Rock samples recovered from the main shock source region showed evidence of ancient hydrothermal alteration on the main shock rupture plane, suggesting that the foreshock activity occurred on a preexisting weakness. The foreshocks during 3 months before the main shock were concentrated in three clusters (F1–F3), which we interpret as representing localized preslip at multiple sites. While the location of mining area, the source of stress perturbations, changed with time, the locations of foreshock clusters did not change, suggesting that the preslip patches were controlled by strength heterogeneity rather than stress distribution. Activity over the entire foreshock area was generally constant, but the largest cluster (F2) showed accelerated activity starting at least 7 days before the main shock, while mining stress did not increase in this period. The main shock initiated at a point close to F1, away from F2. All the six foreshocks during the final 41 h occurred in F1 and F2 and in-between. These suggest that in the last stage of the preparation process of the main shock, preslip patches interacted with each other through the stress concentration ahead of the expanding preslip patch (F2), which should be the only driving force of the preparation process under the constant external load.

Acoustic Emissions (AE) down to M W ~ –4 were recorded at a site 1 km beneath the surface in the Cooke 4 Mine, South Africa. Several planar AE clusters with lateral extent of 10–100 m were identified. Most of them were located several tens of meters away from the mining front, and exhibited steady activity during the analysis period of about two months. Some of the clusters coincided with mapped faults. The planar-cluster AEs were sharply aggregated within a thickness of several decimeters, likely delineating the fracture interface of the fault and its higher-order morphology such as branches, bends, and stepovers. The composite focal mechanism evaluated for each cluster was consistent with slip events on the fracture interface. These results imply that numerous shear microfractures occur steadily on a natural fault surface subjected to a mining-related stress increase. The planar clusters consist of very small AEs (99.7% were smaller than M W –2), exhibiting high b -values much exceeding unity. This contrasts with the more usual b -values of the stope-cluster AEs, which were aggregated within 20 m of the mining front and exhibited a more scattered distribution. The size distribution of microfractures on a fracture interface may directly reflect fine-scale irregularities of the interface. On the other hand, many other mapped faults near the planar AE clusters were not accompanied by AE activities, despite the fact that these quiet faults were subjected to a similar stress history. The presence or absence of AE activities on a fault may reflect different states of the fault, including stress and strength.

Three months of acoustic emission (AE) monitoring in a South African gold mine down to Mw −5 revealed a newly emergent planar cluster of 7557 events −3.9 ≤ Mw ≤ −1.8 (typical rupture radius of 6–70 cm) that expanded with time to reach a size of 20 m on a preexisting geological fault near an active mining front 1 km beneath the ground. It had a sharply defined, planar configuration, with hypocenters aggregated within a thickness of only several decimeters. We infer that the zone defines an aseismic slip patch on the fault, wherein the individual AEs represent failures of very small asperities being loaded by the aseismic slip. Additional support for the interpretation was obtained by analyzing composite focal mechanisms and repeating events. The patch expansion over 2 months was likely quasistatic because all individual AEs ruptured much smaller areas than the cluster size at the corresponding time. The b values dropped gradually from 2.6 to 1.4, consistent with a significant increase in shear stress expected of the mining style. Another cluster with similar characteristics emerged later on a neighboring part of the same fault and grew to a 10 m extent in the last weeks of the study period. The quasi-static expansion of inferred localized slow-slip patches to sizes of 10–20 m suggests that the critical crack length on natural faults can be at least as large, much exceeding the decimeter range derived from laboratory stick-slip experiments on saw-cut rocks.

Microfractures occurring in a rock sample that are called acoustic emission (AE) events show some similar features to earthquakes. However, it remains to be shown whether or not AE equate to ultramicroearthquakes. In this study, we show the existence of magnitude −7 level earthquakes based on seismological analyses of AE source parameters. Advances in multichannel, broadband, high-speed continuous recording of AE under seismogenic pressure conditions has facilitated increasingly robust measurement. Source parameters of AE show that AE events satisfy the same scaling relationship as natural earthquakes in which seismic moment is inversely proportional to the cube of corner frequency. This result suggests that both millimeter scale fractures and natural earthquakes of kilometer scale ruptures are highly similar as physical processes. Hence, AE events can be interpreted as ultramicroearthquakes having a magnitude of about −7. These results demonstrate that laboratory observation is an effective approach in studying natural earthquake generation process.

We investigated frequency-magnitude distribution (FMD) of acoustic emissions (AE) occurring near an active mining front in a South African gold mine, using a catalog developed from an AE network, which is capable of detecting AEs down to M W −5. When records of blasts were removed, FMDs of AEs obeyed a Gutenberg−Richter law with similar b values, not depending on post-blasting time from the initial 1-min interval through more than 30 h. This result denies a suggestion in a previous study (Richardson and Jordan Bull Seismol Soc Am, 92:1766–1782, 2002) that new fractures generated by blasting disturb the size distribution of background events, which they interpreted as slip events on existing weak planes. Our AE catalog showed that the GR law with b ∼ 1.2 was valid between M W −3.7 and 0 for AEs around the mining front. Further, using the mine’s seismic catalog, which covers a longer time period of the same area, we could extend the validity range of the GR law with the same b value up to M W 1.

The 2007 Noto Hanto earthquake was a magnitude 6.8 crustal earthquake (Japan Metrological Agency) that occurred in central Japan. By analyzing continuous seismograms that recorded activity during the 25 days before the earthquake, we detected 36 small seismic events around the mainshock hypocenter that classified as either isolated events or members of three clusters. Three of the detected events are listed in official seismic records. Two clusters included more than ten events and occurred some distance from the mainshock fault, indicating that the clusters did not relate to the mainshock event. Only the third cluster was located along the mainshock fault. This cluster occurred in the vicinity of the mainshock hypocenter and consisted of four foreshocks with identical seismograms. This cluster began twelve minutes before the mainshock. The occurrence pattern of this clustered foreshock sequence is similar to that observed in association with the 2008 Iwate-Miyagi Inland earthquake.

Southwest Japan lies above an area where the Philippines Sea plate subducts beneath the Eurasian plate. The region experiences relatively high levels of crustal seismicity in addition to the interplate and intraplate seismicity associated with subduction. Crustal earthquakes are common, for example, in the Wakayama district of southwest Japan where they occur as swarmlike seismic activity. Swarm activity is common in volcanic areas but there are no Quaternary volcanic features in the Wakayama district. This report interprets crustal structure in the Wakayama district and its relationship to the swarm activity observed there. We use a new imaging method based on amplitudes of Sp ‐converted waves to image the spatial distribution of velocity discontinuities at high resolution. We detected four distinct velocity discontinuities at depths of 2–5, 8–13, 12–22, and 20–27 km. We interpret the 2–5 km discontinuity as the bottom of the sedimentary layer, the 12–22 km feature as the Conrad discontinuity, and the 20–27 km feature as the Moho discontinuity. The 8–13 km velocity discontinuity is detected only beneath the swarm region. The thickness of the upper crust in the swarm region was estimated to be greater than that of surrounding areas. Contrasts in the distribution of velocity discontinuities between the swarm region and surrounding areas suggest that swarm activity is generated by increased pore pressure of fluids escaping from a magmatic body ascending from the mantle.

We analyzed temporal changes in the quality factor ( Q ) of P waves transmitting through a fracturing Westerly granite sample under triaxial compressive conditions, using the rise time of the initial wave. Broadband recording was performed throughout, even after the differential stress reached the peak strength. We calibrated a transducer assembly and corrected the recorded waveforms. Using theoretical waveforms, we derived a new equation relating Q P , the rise time for the velocity waveform, and the travel time. Q P remained at ∼23 before the start of dilatancy and decreased to ∼17 after the peak stress was reached. A large nonlinear decrease in Q P was not clearly observed, while the first wave amplitude clearly decreased rapidly after the occurrence of the peak stress.

This is the first report from the JAGUARS (JApanese-German Underground Acoustic Emission Research in South Africa) project, the overall aim of which is to observe ultra-small fracturing in a more or less natural environment. We installed a local (∼40-m span) network of eight acoustic emission (AE) sensors, which have the capability to observe up to 200 kHz at a depth of 3.3 km in a South African gold mine. Our specific objective was to monitor a 30-m thick dyke that remains as a dip pillar against active mining ∼90 m above our network. An M w 1.9 earthquake whose hypocenter was ∼30 m above the network occurred in the dyke. Although the mineowned geophone (4.5 Hz) network detected only five earthquakes in the surrounding 200×200×150-m3 volume within the first 150 h following the main shock, our AE network detected more than 20,000 earthquakes in the same period. More than 13,000 of these formed a distinct planar cluster (∼100×80 m2) on which the main shock hypocenter lay, suggesting that this cluster delineates the main shock rupture plane. Most of the aftershocks were presumably very small, probably as low as M ∼ −4. The aftershock cluster dipped ∼60°. This is consistent with normal faulting under a nearly vertical compression field, as indicated by nearly horizontal breakouts found in a borehole crossing the rupture plane.

We analyzed temporal changes in the velocity and amplitude of P waves transmitted through a granite sample during a triaxial compression test, with the goal of monitoring the fault formation process associated with open and shear cracking. We used newly developed transducer assemblies for the broadband recording, and we continued to record transmitting waves even after the peak stress occurred. For transmitting P waves with paths parallel to the maximum compressive axis, we found that both the first wave amplitude and the velocity decreased after dilatancy started, and they kept decreasing even after the peak stress. In addition, the large nonlinear decrease in amplitude was associated with a rapid decrease in differential stress, whereas the rate of decrease in velocity remained almost constant. Thus, before the rapid decrease of differential stress, when both the amplitude and the velocity gradually decreased, open cracking was indicated to be dominant. Thereafter, shear cracking was indicated to become dominant in synchronization with the rapid decrease in differential stress. It is suggested that a main fault started to grow around the sample surface and then progressed into the sample interior; this corresponded to the rapid stress decrease. This fault acts as a strong scatterer for P waves that are parallel to the maximum compressive axis.

The framework of decision-making process and the way to make a consensus among residents and river administrators are pursued. Interviews were held to river administrators and representatives of NPOs that typical three cases of river planning concern. The results of this research revealed three points to improvement the ongoing river administrative. The first is changing framework of river administrative that doesn't allow public involvement in flood control. The second is NPOs' working with river administrators for educational activities. The third is NPOs' continual acts in neutral position.

A multi-disciplinary study of the response of the rock mass to mining and mining-induced earthquakes has been conducted in six gold mines in South Africa at sites deeper than 3 km, or with equivalent stress. More than 80 holes (with a total length of more than 2.8 km) were drilled in earthquake-prone areas to locate faults and install instruments. Microfracturing activity associated with an ML2.1 event at 3.3 km depth in Mponeng Mine and a highly stressed rock mass at 1 km depth in Ezulwini Mine were finely delineated and analysed. A hole drilled through the hypocentre of the ML2.1 event at Mponeng Mine allowed the stress and strength in the seismogenic area to be constrained. Previously published in situ stress measurements had been limited to depths or stresses smaller than 2.7 km or 100 MPa, respectively. We successfully measured stress at depths and stresses up to 3.4 km and 146 MPa, respectively, at four mines. These in situ measured stresses were used to calibrate elastic stress modelling and yielded better estimates of stress and strength on the rupture planes of seven earthquakes (ML2.1 to 4). Comparison of the elastically modelled stress with the constrained stress in a hole drilled across the ML2.1 fault and the strain change monitored in situ at a close distance showed that the elastically modelled stress was smaller but correctable. The South African National Seismograph Network was enhanced by installing 10 surface strong-motion seismometer stations in the Far West Rand mining district. Two other such dense surface networks are currently operated in mining areas by the Council for Geoscience: 25 stations in the Klerksdorp region, supported by the Mine Health and Safety Council; and 17 stations in the Central Rand to monitor fluid-induced seismicity. Research on the routine processing of spectral parameters was carried out using seismicity recorded by these 52 new surface stations.

We investigated the gross structure of a fault in three dimensions during its formation process. The observed sample was Westerly granite recovered from compression after peak stress but before dynamic rupture. The sample was infused with a fluorescent resin, mechanically stripped, then observed with a stereo-microscope under UV light. The main fault plane was found to be macroscopically elliptical, and the fault trace on each polished surface was identical to that detected by X-ray CT scanning. Evidence suggests that the fault plane widened its cracked zone as it grew. The gross structures of the fault system, such as a step-over structure and sub-faults parallel to the main fault, were also detected. We conclude that the step-over structure was formed during the fault formation process.

Observations of spatial fault development in granite undergoing compression provide new insights into the process of faulting. Dry intact Westerly granite samples were loaded under a confining pressure of 100 MPa (triaxial conditions) and 5 MPa (∼ uniaxial conditions), and the progress of faulting was controlled by maintaining the increment of circumferential displacement at a constant rate, which apparently stiffened the machine. The samples were unloaded after they experienced some degree of stress drop and were successfully recovered before faulting progressed further. A conventional medical X-ray CT scanning system was used to image the sample interiors. Three-dimensional fault systems were detected with sequential X-ray CT images. It was found that three-dimensional reconstruction by X-ray CT images yields not only three-dimensional images of the fault system, but also provides fault cross-section images with much less artificial noise (artifacts) than does direct X-ray CT imaging. Three-dimensional images show that a fault system that developed under uniaxial conditions is much more complicated than a fault system produced by triaxial conditions. In addition, the fault plane produced under uniaxial conditions is inclined at a lower angle to the maximum compressive axis than under triaxial conditions. Comparing X-ray CT images, we show that a fault nucleates locally on the sample surface just after peak stress, then develops into the final fault plane in the residual stress stage of the complete stress–strain relationship under triaxial conditions.

SUMMARY We investigated the temporal changes in the seismic attenuation of a fault zone using nearsource recordings of S waves from repeating microearthquakes that occurred both before and after M ∼2 earthquakes in the Bambanani gold mine, South Africa. Because the source locations and the mechanisms of repeating earthquakes can be regarded as identical, the attenuation change can be estimated using the spectral ratios for repeating earthquake pairs. We found an increase in the S-wave attenuation parameter Q −1 S on the vertical component which is positively correlated with frequency, corresponding to times before and after the M ∼2 earthquakes. This increase can be explained by scattering attenuation, with a typical scale of damage in the fault zone of ∼ 3m .

[1] Using continuous waveforms recorded at a seismic station located in close proximity to the epicenter of the 2008 Iwate-Miyagi inland earthquake, we conducted a detailed investigation of foreshock behavior. Calculation of cross-correlation coefficients between the continuous waveform record and one of the officially recognized foreshock events revealed 20 micro foreshocks in addition to the two previously recognized foreshocks. Our analysis shows that all of the foreshocks occurred within the same general area relative to the main event. Over the two week period leading up to the Iwate-Miyagi earthquake, foreshocks only occurred during the last 45 minutes, specifically over a 35 minute period followed by a 10 minute period of quiescence just before the mainshock. We found no evidence of acceleration of the foreshock sequence.

Proceedings of the Sixth International Seminar on Deep and High Stress Mining, Perth, Australia, 28-30 March 2012

We developed a new transducer assembly (transducer and pressure-tight housing) to record broadband (100 kHz – 1000 kHz) elastic waves under triaxial compressive conditions, which enables us to do seismological analyses for acoustic emission (AE) and active transmission wave. Some commercially available ultrasonic broadband transducers have backing materials. Not only does the backing material broaden the relatively sensitive frequency range, but it reduces the apparent continuous vibration that is seen in records obtained with a piezoelectric element. However, these kinds of ultrasonic transducers cannot be used under confining pressures. Hence, we must hermetically seal these transducers,when we want to use them under triaxial compressive conditions. We use an end piece as a pressure-tight housing. End pieces are attached to the upper and lower base of a cylindrical rock sample. Since we use the transducer assemblyunder differential stresses, the o-rings must be all set normal to the loading axis so that they do not become elliptical, while we need not care the orientation of o-rings when we use them under hydrostatic pressures. Our transducer assembly is roughly divided into three parts: the body, inner cap, and outer cap. A broadband transducer is attached to the pit surface of the body, and is held by a leaf spring to improve coupling. With the new transducer assembly, the transducer is not subjected to confining pressure; thus, the coupling between the transducer and body should not be affected by this pressure. Then, this increases the stability of the sensor coupling compared with the conventional way of attaching sensor elements, using epoxy or cyanoacrylate adhesives, when we use them under confining pressures.

[1] We estimate stress drops and radiated seismic energies of 20 microearthquakes (0.0 < MW < 1.3) in a South African gold mine to investigate their rupture characteristics and scaling relationships to large earthquakes. We analyze seismograms of borehole accelerometers recorded with high sampling rate (15 kHz) within 200 m of the hypocenters at the depth of 2650 m. The waveform data have very high signal-to-noise ratio and no significant later phases are observed at all stations. Corner frequencies and quality factors of the anelastic attenuation Q are estimated from spectra of velocity seismograms by assuming the omega squared model of Boatwright (1978). We also investigate moment tensors for double couple solutions and volumetric components from the waveform inversion. Static stress drops of the 20 earthquakes calculated from the model of Madariaga (1976) are from 3.2 to 88 MPa and scaled energies (= ER/Mo; the ratio of the radiated energy ER to the seismic moment Mo) are from 4.2 × 10−6 to 1.1 × 10−4. We find that both the static stress drops and the scaled energies of the analyzed earthquakes are comparable to those values of larger earthquakes. Our results indicate that the dynamic rupture processes of these microearthquakes are similar to those of larger earthquakes.

Observations of the spatial development of cracks in granite undergoing triaxial compression provide new insights into the proces of fault formation. Dry intact Westerly granite samples were loaded under confining pressure of 100 MPa, and the progress of fault formation was controlled by maintaining the increment of circumferential displacement at a constant rate. The samples were unloaded when they experienced stress drops and were successfully recovered without severe crushing. A stereo microscope was used to observe the spatial pattern of cracks on the sample surfaces, and an X-ray CT scanning system was used to non-destructively image the sample interiors. Microscope observations show that several fault-like linear cracks developed on the surfaces of all the samples and have an angle of about 30 degrees to the maximum compression axis. This suggests that fault nucleation began just after peak stress. The X-ray CT images show that a fault-like linear crack grew inward toward the sample interior as axial stress decreased. It is concluded that the fault nucleated locally on the sample surface just after peak stress, and developed into an apparent fault by the plateau stage of the complete stress-strain relationship.

We investigate a temporal change in a stress parameter of earthquakes that occurred in the 1989 swarms off the eastern Izu Peninsula in Japan. We use the energy index (EI), which have been monitored in deep South African gold mines for predicting major events, as an estimate of apparent stress that is proportional to the ratio of seismic energy (E) to seismic moment (Mo).EImeasures an excess or shortage inEwith respect to the empirical relationship betweenEandMo. We check thatEIis almost proportional to the apparent stress for the ranges ofMoand frequency for our analysis, althoughEis underestimated due to the artifact of limited frequency band of monitoring. The largest events (M= 5.2 and 5.5) took place off the tip of a vertical crack, which opened associated with magma intrusion. While the opening continued to load the source areas of theM5.2 and 5.5, we find significant decrease inEIprior to the events. Based on the experimental result that the stress decreases when yielding takes place prior to final failure, we interpret this observation as yielding in the vicinity of the large earthquake hypocenters, following a rapid increase in stress caused by magma intrusion.