Source Mechanisms of Microearthquakes at the Southeast Geysers Geothermal Field, California

Abstract

Source mechanisms of 985 microearthquakes at the Southeast Geysers geothermal field, are investigated using a moment tensor formulation. P- and S-wave amplitude and polarity are utilized to estimate the full, second-order moment tensor, which is then decomposed into isotropic, double-couple, and compensated linear vector dipole components. The moment tensor principal axes are used to infer the directions of principal stress associated with the double-couple component of the source mechanism. Most of the events can be modeled as primarily double-couple; however, a small but significant isotropic component, which can be either positive or negative, is also needed to explain the observed waveforms. Events with positive isotropic components and events with negative isotropic components both occur in areas of steam extraction and in areas of fluid injection. Principal axes of moment tensors with negative isotropic components are aligned with the regional stress field, while those of moment tensors with positive isotropic components differ significantly from the regional stress field. This suggests that two differing inducing mechanisms are required: negativetype events involve local stress perturbations that are small compared to the regional stress, while positivetype events involve stress perturbations which locally dominate over the regional stress.