Investigating the Effects of Earthquakes on Tuzla Geothermal Field

Abstract

Tuzla Geothermal Field (TGF) is located at 80 km south of Çanakkale city and it is 5 km away from the Aegean Coast. History of the TGF dated back to 1960s and the earliest drilling activities are performed by General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration of Turkey (MTA) in 1980s. However, the field’s energy production started at 2010. Geology of the area is mainly volcanic with rhyolite lava and pyroclastic deposits. Tuzla Geothermal field situated on the trans-tensional extensions of North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) and it is covered by NE-SW striking dextral fault and NW-SE striking normal faults. In Tuzla geothermal field there are 5 observation wells in which pressure data are recorded in every three minutes. Also, production and reinjection wells have well head recording instruments of temperature, pressure and flow rate data that recorded in every 4 hours. Aim of this paper is to investigate and classify the effect of the earthquakes on geothermal source by matching the production – injection data as well as pressure response of the observation wells with Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute’s (KOERI) earthquake database. The classification is based on the earthquakes distance to the wells, depth and magnitude of the earthquake.