Editorial: Preface to the special issue “Induced seismicity: observations, monitoring, and risk management strategies”

Stabile, T. A., Rinaldi, A. P., Pankow, K.

Journal of Seismology, 24(5) pp. 917-919, 2020 | doi: 10.1007/s10950-020-09956-x

ABSTRACT:

It is well known that industrial activities related to development and production of energy have the potential to induce minor seismicity or trigger larger earthquakes. This is a global phenomenon with implications for seismic hazard and risk, and real concern exists about larger earthquakes that might be triggered by industrial activities especially in densely populated areas. Public and regulatory concerns about the potential hazard from induced earthquakes continue to evolve in response to a deepening scientific understanding of the underlying mechanisms and improvements to probabilistic seismic hazard models. There is a growing understanding that taking steps to reduce the hazard can mitigate the risk. Consequently, guidelines for monitoring are being revised and improved.

This special issue principally gathers a selection of contributions presented at the Session S32 focused on induced seismicity of the 36th General Assembly of the European Seismological Commission held in Malta on 2–7 September 2018 and also additional contributions from other researchers. The articles included in this special issue provide theoretical, experimental, and observational advances in detecting, monitoring, and understanding the seismicity induced by hydrocarbon exploitation, geothermal development, and other industrial operations, as well as hazard management strategies for reducing the risk, including monitoring guidelines and the implementation of traffic light systems.