• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.137-143
• /
• 2010

An earthquake with local magnitude $(M_L)$ 3.7 on December 9, 2000 occurred offshore Yeongdeok area, South Korea. In case of applying Chang and Baag (2006) crustal velocity model, the epicenter is $36.4462^{\circ}N\;and\;129.9789^{\circ}E$, which belongs to the inside of the Korean Peninsula Continental Shelf. Although we use the modified model reducing crustal thickness of Chang and Baag (2006) model by 5 km considering the transition from continental crust to oceanic crust in the East Sea, the epicenter was little changed. We carried out the waveform inversion analysis to estimate focal depth and focal mechanism of this event. The focal depth is estimated to be 11 ~ 12 km. The seismic moment is estimated to be $1.0{\times}10^{15}N{\cdot}m$, and this value corresponds to the moment magnitude $(M_W)$ 3.9. The offshore Yeongdeok event including May 29, 2004 offshore Uljin one show typical thrust faulting, and the direction of P-axis is ESE-WNW. The moment magnitude estimated by the spectral analysis is 4.0, which is similar to that by the waveform inversion analysis. Average stress drop is estimated to be 3.4 MPa.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.197-213
• /
• 2019

We simulated the fault reactivation experiment conducted at 'Main Fault' intersecting the low permeability clay formations of Mont Terri Underground Research Laboratory in Switzerland using TOUGH-FLAC simulator. The fluid flow along a fault was modelled with solid elements and governed by Darcy's law with the cubic law in TOUGH2, whereas the mechanical behavior of a single fault was represented by creating interface elements between two separating rock blocks in FLAC3D. We formulate the hydro-mechanical coupling relation of hydraulic aperture to consider the elastic fracture opening and failure-induced dilation for reproducing the abrupt changes in injection flow rate and monitoring pressure at fracture opening pressure. A parametric study was conducted to examine the effects of in-situ stress condition and fault deformation and strength parameters and to find the optimal parameter set to reproduce the field observations. In the best matching simulation, the fracture opening pressure and variations of injection flow rate and monitoring pressure showed good agreement with field experiment results, which suggests the capability of the numerical model to reasonably capture the fracture opening and propagation process. The model overestimated the fault displacement in shear direction and the range of reactivated zone, which was attributed to the progressive shear failures along the fault at high injection pressure. In the field experiment results, however, fracture tensile opening seems the dominant mechanism affecting the hydraulic aperture increase.