Seismic monitoring of the growth of a hydraulic fracture zone at Fenton Hill, New Mexico

The hydraulic fracturing technique is an important method for enhancing hydrocarbon recovery, geothermal energy extraction, and solid waste disposal. Determination of the geometry and growth process of a hydraulic fracture zone is important for monitoring and assessing subsurface fractures. A relative-source-location approach, based on a waveform correlation and a grid search method, has been developed to estimate relative hypocenter locations for a cluster of 157 microearthquakes induced by hydraulic fracturing at the Los Alamos Hot Dry Rock (HDR) geothermal site. Among the 157 events, 147 microearthquakes occurred in a tight cluster with a dimension of 40 m, roughly defining a vertical hydraulic fracture zone with an orientation of N40 degrees W. The length, height, and width of the hydraulic fracture zone are estimated to be 40, 35, and 5 m, respectively. Analysis of the spatial-temporal pattern of the induced microearthquakes reveals that the fracture zone grew significantly, averaging 0.2 m/minute in a two-hour period toward the northwest along the fracture zone strike.