Conducting baseline seismic monitoring at the Field Research Station near Brooks, Alberta

Thanks to the UKCCSRC International Research Collaboration Fund I have been conducting baseline seismic monitoring at the Field Research Station (FRS) near Brooks, Alberta.  The FRS is an exciting research project run by the Containment & Monitoring Institute (CaMI), a business unit of CMC Research Institutes in Calgary.  The plan is to inject CO₂ into the subsurface at a depth of approximately 300m. Geophysical, geochemical, geomechanical and geodetic monitoring research at the site will be used to study the subsurface gas plume to improve understanding of  shallow groundwater systems, fluid flow and the behaviour of CO₂ in an aquifer.

The work has involved several trips to Brooks, first to deploy the broadband seismic stations and then to collect the baseline data. The baseline is important so any observed changes in seismic activity or seismic velocities once CO₂ injection begins may be attributed to the injection.  The data reveals many regional explosion events, and a large portion of these events do not appear in the Canadian catalogue.  So far we have not observed any events at or near the site. Our instruments remain in the field and we are looking forward to the time when CO₂ is injected at the site so we can observe the effect on seismicity and seismic velocities.