Induced seismicity in Southeastern New Mexico

Justin L. Rubinstein, & Jeongung Woo

Published September 10, 2023, SCEC Contribution #12868, 2023 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #023

Since 2015, the Permian Basin in southeastern New Mexico and western Texas has experienced a surge in seismicity that is continuing to rise. In 2022 the rate of M3+ earthquakes in the Permian was higher than in California. Most of the seismicity lies within the Texas portion of the Basin, including the three M5+ earthquakes that have occurred to date. While the seismicity rate in the New Mexico of the basin is lower than Texas, significant seismicity has been occurring the area, including a M4 earthquake. In response to the growing seismicity southeastern New Mexico, the USGS in collaboration the New Mexico Bureau of Geology deployed a 14-station seismic network in the region. With this network, we have detected and manually located over 1400 earthquakes, many of which lie in New Mexico. Machine learning methods have also been used to generate a catalog of earthquakes, increasing the number of events detected by an order of magnitude. Here we will present analysis of this seismicity, including a new velocity model, a fault map, and stress inversion.

Key Words
Permian Basin, New Mexico, Induced Seismicity

Citation
Rubinstein, J. L., & Woo, J. (2023, 09). Induced seismicity in Southeastern New Mexico . Poster Presentation at 2023 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Seismology