11:15 AM - 11:30 AM
[S02-4-04] Developing an Induced Seismic Mitigation Plan for the Proposed Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE)
The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing to develop a Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE). The goal for this facility is to develop and test new technologies and techniques related to enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). One of two potential locations for this facility (the Utah FORGE site) is the eastern Basin and Range in Utah's west Desert. The site is located directly west of Roosevelt Hot Springs and the operating Blundell geothermal power plant. One aspect of developing the FORGE facility is creating, in advance of any development, an induced seismic mitigation plan. In this paper, we present both completed and ongoing work related to the development of this plan. This work includes: reviewing the historical earthquake catalog; using the historical catalog to develop templates for subspace detection in order to lower the earthquake magnitude of completeness for the study area and to identify seismically active zones; reviewing previous seismic hazard analyses; the creation of deterministic ground-motion earthquake scenarios; risk analysis for the scenarios; and the analysis of newly collected seismic data. New seismic data includes data from a local five-station, broadband network, and data from a 96-element three-component Nodal seismic experiment that was operated for approximately one month. The new seismic data is being used for seismic detection and to develop initial seismic velocity images. Taken together this information will be used to develop a mitigation plan, such as a traffic light system, that can be used to modify production in order to minimize the risk from potential induced earthquakes.