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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Max WilkinsonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Claims of industrially induced seismicity vary from indisputable to unpersuasive and yet the veracityof industrial induction is vital for regulatory and operational practice. Assessment schemes have beendeveloped in response to this need. We report here an initial assessment of the reliability of all globallyknown cases of proposed human-induced earthquakes and invite specialists on particular cases torefine these results. 1235 cases were assessed, requiring over 1000 h of work. From the 881 cases forwhich scorable evidence is available, we class 87% as ‘Confidently Induced’, 10% as ‘Probably Induced’,2% as ‘Equivocal’ and < 1% as ‘Confidently Natural’. The most seismogenic activities are fracking,research, geothermal, water reservoir impoundment, conventional oil and gas. Least seismogenicactivities are construction, deep penetrating bombs, coal bed methane. 354 cases (29%) lack enoughinformation to be assessable. Future work could include applying data mining techniques includingnatural language processing and AI to uncover new evidence. Future best practice for rapid assessmentof cases would ideally involve an independent panel of scientists who rapidly apply a questionnairescheme, reach consensus, and inform a response.
Author(s): Wilkinson M, Mhana N, Wilson MP, Foulger GR, Tezel T, Gluyas JG
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Scientific Reports
Year: 2024
Volume: 14
Online publication date: 28/12/2024
Acceptance date: 27/11/2024
Date deposited: 06/01/2025
ISSN (electronic): 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-81632-3
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-81632-3
Data Access Statement: The HiQuake database is freely available to download from www.inducedearthquakes.org. The E-PIE scores are available within the supplementary data and will be included online in a future update of HiQuake.
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