Understanding Vectorial Migration Patterns of Wastewater-Induced Earthquakes in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (5) ◽  
pp. 2295-2307
Author(s):  
Lisa Johann ◽  
Serge A. Shapiro

ABSTRACT The recent surge of earthquakes in the central United States is linked to the disposal of large volumes of wastewater. Even if injection rates have been decreasing since 2015, the seismic hazard remains elevated. Moreover, some events in Kansas occur far from disposal wells. We applied a multidimensional cross-correlation technique to analyze the spatiotemporal relation between fluid injection and earthquakes. While a strong correlation is observed in east-northeastern direction of the disposal wells for the majority of events, some earthquakes occur in northeastern direction far from the disposal wells. We explain this pattern and the large-scale evolution of borehole pressure observations by directional migration of poroelastic stresses and pore pressure diffusion. This follows from our principal 2D poroelastic finite-element model that has a predicting power and identifies controlling parameters of the process. These are the permeability of the basement and its anisotropic character as well as the distribution of critical fault strengths. Our results suggest that remote locations may be destabilized even when injection rates are declining. Thus, a volume reduction may only provide an immediate effect to lower the seismicity locally. It follows that a state-wide reduction in earthquakes may require longer waiting times and that the hazard of induced seismicity may remain elevated for tens of years.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Johann ◽  
Serge A. Shapiro

<p>It is understood that the recent acceleration of seismic event occurrences in Kansas and Oklahoma, U.S., can be connected to the large-volume disposal of wastewater. These highly saline fluids are co-produced with oil and gas and are re-injected under gravity into the highly porous Arbuckle aquifer. Since 2015, injection rates have been decreasing. However, the seismic hazard in that region remains elevated. Furthermore, it has been noticed that some events in Kansas occur far from disposal wells.</p><p>To analyse spatio-temporal patterns between the fluid injection and earthquake locations, we applied a time-dependent 2D cross-correlation technique. This reveals a vectorial migration pattern of the seismic events. Whereas early events occur towards the east-sourtheast, later events are located preferably in northeastern direction of large volume injectors. With time, event locations migrate further in that direction. We explain this observation as well as measured Arbuckle pore pressures by a directional pore-fluid pressure diffusion and poroelastic stress propagation. This also follows from our principal two-dimension poroelastic finite element model which is of predictive power and identifies controlling parameters of the observations. These are mainly the permeability of the target injection formation and the seismogenic basement as well as the anisotropic permeability and the critical fault strength distribution. Our results lead to the conclusion that remote locations are destabilised also when injection rates are declining.</p><p>Thus, volume reductions may only provide a direct effect to lower earthquake rates locally. However, a state-wide decrease of the seismicity may require longer times such that the seismic hazard due to wastewater disposal induced seismicity may remain for decades. </p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 3541-3558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisi Pei ◽  
Nathan Moore ◽  
Shiyuan Zhong ◽  
Anthony D. Kendall ◽  
Zhiqiu Gao ◽  
...  

Abstract Irrigation’s effects on precipitation during an exceptionally dry summer (June–August 2012) in the United States were quantified by incorporating a novel dynamic irrigation scheme into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. The scheme is designed to represent a typical application strategy for farmlands across the conterminous United States (CONUS) and a satellite-derived irrigation map was incorporated into the WRF-Noah-Mosaic module to realistically trigger the irrigation. Results show that this new irrigation approach can dynamically generate irrigation water amounts that are in close agreement with the actual irrigation water amounts across the high plains (HP), where the prescribed scheme best matches real-world irrigation practices. Surface energy and water budgets have been substantially altered by irrigation, leading to modified large-scale atmospheric circulations. In the studied dry summer, irrigation was found to strengthen the dominant interior high pressure system over the southern and central United States and deepen the trough over the upper Midwest. For the HP and central United States, the rainfall amount is slightly reduced over irrigated areas, likely as a result of a reduction in both local convection and large-scale moisture convergence resulting from interactions and feedbacks between the land surface and atmosphere. In areas downwind of heavily irrigated regions, precipitation is enhanced, resulting in a 20%–100% reduction in the dry biases (relative to the observations) simulated over a large portion of the downwind areas without irrigation in the model. The introduction of irrigation reduces the overall mean biases and root-mean-square errors in the simulated daily precipitation over the CONUS.


1966 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. 67-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. I. Lourie ◽  
W. Haenszeland

Quality control of data collected in the United States by the Cancer End Results Program utilizing punchcards prepared by participating registries in accordance with a Uniform Punchcard Code is discussed. Existing arrangements decentralize responsibility for editing and related data processing to the local registries with centralization of tabulating and statistical services in the End Results Section, National Cancer Institute. The most recent deck of punchcards represented over 600,000 cancer patients; approximately 50,000 newly diagnosed cases are added annually.Mechanical editing and inspection of punchcards and field audits are the principal tools for quality control. Mechanical editing of the punchcards includes testing for blank entries and detection of in-admissable or inconsistent codes. Highly improbable codes are subjected to special scrutiny. Field audits include the drawing of a 1-10 percent random sample of punchcards submitted by a registry; the charts are .then reabstracted and recoded by a NCI staff member and differences between the punchcard and the results of independent review are noted.


Author(s):  
Joshua Kotin

This book is a new account of utopian writing. It examines how eight writers—Henry David Thoreau, W. E. B. Du Bois, Osip and Nadezhda Mandel'shtam, Anna Akhmatova, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, and J. H. Prynne—construct utopias of one within and against modernity's two large-scale attempts to harmonize individual and collective interests: liberalism and communism. The book begins in the United States between the buildup to the Civil War and the end of Jim Crow; continues in the Soviet Union between Stalinism and the late Soviet period; and concludes in England and the United States between World War I and the end of the Cold War. In this way it captures how writers from disparate geopolitical contexts resist state and normative power to construct perfect worlds—for themselves alone. The book contributes to debates about literature and politics, presenting innovative arguments about aesthetic difficulty, personal autonomy, and complicity and dissent. It models a new approach to transnational and comparative scholarship, combining original research in English and Russian to illuminate more than a century and a half of literary and political history.


Author(s):  
Anne Nassauer

This book provides an account of how and why routine interactions break down and how such situational breakdowns lead to protest violence and other types of surprising social outcomes. It takes a close-up look at the dynamic processes of how situations unfold and compares their role to that of motivations, strategies, and other contextual factors. The book discusses factors that can draw us into violent situations and describes how and why we make uncommon individual and collective decisions. Covering different types of surprise outcomes from protest marches and uprisings turning violent to robbers failing to rob a store at gunpoint, it shows how unfolding situations can override our motivations and strategies and how emotions and culture, as well as rational thinking, still play a part in these events. The first chapters study protest violence in Germany and the United States from 1960 until 2010, taking a detailed look at what happens between the start of a protest and the eruption of violence or its peaceful conclusion. They compare the impact of such dynamics to the role of police strategies and culture, protesters’ claims and violent motivations, the black bloc and agents provocateurs. The analysis shows how violence is triggered, what determines its intensity, and which measures can avoid its outbreak. The book explores whether we find similar situational patterns leading to surprising outcomes in other types of small- and large-scale events: uprisings turning violent, such as Ferguson in 2014 and Baltimore in 2015, and failed armed store robberies.


Author(s):  
Richard Gowan

During Ban Ki-moon’s tenure, the Security Council was shaken by P5 divisions over Kosovo, Georgia, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. Yet it also continued to mandate and sustain large-scale peacekeeping operations in Africa, placing major burdens on the UN Secretariat. The chapter will argue that Ban initially took a cautious approach to controversies with the Council, and earned a reputation for excessive passivity in the face of crisis and deference to the United States. The second half of the chapter suggests that Ban shifted to a more activist pressure as his tenure went on, pressing the Council to act in cases including Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, and Syria. The chapter will argue that Ban had only a marginal impact on Council decision-making, even though he made a creditable effort to speak truth to power over cases such as the Central African Republic (CAR), challenging Council members to live up to their responsibilities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S563-S563
Author(s):  
Kenneth A Valles ◽  
Lewis R Roberts

Abstract Background Infection by hepatitis B and C viruses causes inflammation of the liver and can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The WHO’s ambition to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030 requires strategies specific to the dynamic disease profiles each nation faces. Large-scale human movement from high-prevalence nations to the United States and Canada have altered the disease landscape, likely warranting adjustments to present elimination approaches. However, the nature and magnitude of the new disease burden remains unknown. This study aims to generate a modeled estimate of recent HBV and HCV prevalence changes to the United States and Canada due to migration. Methods Total migrant populations from 2010-2019 were obtained from United Nations Migrant Stock database. Country-of-origin HBV and HCV prevalences were obtained for the select 40 country-of-origin nations from the Polaris Observatory and systematic reviews. A standard pivot table was used to evaluate the disease contribution from and to each nation. Disease progression estimates were generated using the American Association for the Study of the Liver guidelines and outcome data. Results Between 2010 and 2019, 7,676,937 documented migrants arrived in US and Canada from the selected high-volume nations. Primary migrant source regions were East Asia and Latin America. Combined, an estimated 878,995 migrants were HBV positive, and 226,428 HCV positive. The majority of both migrants (6,477,506) and new viral hepatitis cases (HBV=840,315 and HCV=215,359) were found in the United States. The largest source of HBV cases stemmed from the Philippines, and HCV cases from El Salvador. Conclusion Massive human movement has significantly changed HBV and HCV disease burdens in both the US and Canada over the past decade and the long-term outcomes of cirrhosis and HCC are also expected to increase. These increases are likely to disproportionally impact individuals of the migrant and refugee communities and screening and treatment programs must be strategically adjusted in order to reduce morbidity, mortality, and healthcare expenses. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (52) ◽  
pp. e2110347118
Author(s):  
Ray Block ◽  
Charles Crabtree ◽  
John B. Holbein ◽  
J. Quin Monson

In this article, we present the results from a large-scale field experiment designed to measure racial discrimination among the American public. We conducted an audit study on the general public—sending correspondence to 250,000 citizens randomly drawn from public voter registration lists. Our within-subjects experimental design tested the public’s responsiveness to electronically delivered requests to volunteer their time to help with completing a simple task—taking a survey. We randomized whether the request came from either an ostensibly Black or an ostensibly White sender. We provide evidence that in electronic interactions, on average, the public is less likely to respond to emails from people they believe to be Black (rather than White). Our results give us a snapshot of a subtle form of racial bias that is systemic in the United States. What we term everyday or “paper cut” discrimination is exhibited by all racial/ethnic subgroups—outside of Black people themselves—and is present in all geographic regions in the United States. We benchmark paper cut discrimination among the public to estimates of discrimination among various groups of social elites. We show that discrimination among the public occurs more frequently than discrimination observed among elected officials and discrimination in higher education and the medical sector but simultaneously, less frequently than discrimination in housing and employment contexts. Our results provide a window into the discrimination that Black people in the United States face in day-to-day interactions with their fellow citizens.


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