Identification of Structures Inside an AE/Microseismic Cloud in a HDR Reservoir and Relocation by a Modified Collapsing Method

Abstract

We present a new method to relocate microseismic events based on the concept of the "collapsing method". The collapsing method is a relocation technique which aims to find the simplest microseismic structure by reducing statistical uncertainties. We introduce the idea of estimating the original microseismic structures which have sizes comparable to the error ellipsoid. Three simple structures, point, plane, and line are allowed for in this new method. The original collapsing method implicitly assumed that all the original structures were points. The modified technique has been applied to microseismic events detected at the Fenton Hill HDR Field, NM, USA, and structures were imaged which show the feasibility of estimating precise structures inside HDR reservoirs.