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Induced Seismicity Resource Hub

Induced Seismicity Is the Part Everyone Calls "Under Control"

This stack keeps you honest when injection programs wake up a fault: the federal authority, state directives, science-grade hazard models, and the papers stakeholders actually cite.

Use it to brief boards, negotiate permit conditions, or design traffic-light systems before Mw 5 headlines hit Twitter.

Federal Regulatory Backbone

The Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA UIC guidance, and congressional briefings that quietly define how agencies police injection-triggered shaking.

7 resources

EPA UIC NTW - Class II Induced Seismicity Paper

Still the de facto federal playbook for deciding when to collect extra data, throttle rates, or shut in wells that trigger earthquakes.

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UIC National Technical Workgroup Issue Papers Hub

Landing page for all NTW technical memoranda, including the induced seismicity guide regulators cite during enforcement.

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EPA Underground Injection Control Regulations

Overview of how Class II and Class VI wells fall under the Safe Drinking Water Act's no-endangerment standard instead of a bespoke seismic rule.

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EPA Class VI Rule - CO2 Storage Requirements

Site characterization, Area of Review, and pressure management obligations that explicitly require fault stability and seismic monitoring plans.

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CRS R47386 - Earthquakes Induced by Underground Injection

Explains how EPA oversight, state primacy, and federal R&D interact when Class II disposal wells or CO2 storage projects rattle the basin.

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CRS R43836 - Human-Induced Earthquakes from Deep-Well Injection

Legacy CRS primer that still frames the science, regulatory gaps, and Oklahoma case study policymakers lean on.

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LawAtlas - Induced Seismicity from Oil and Gas Wastewater

Comparative map of seven state Class II programs plus EPA, highlighting notification triggers, traffic light systems, and enforcement authorities.

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State Playbooks & Enforcement

Examples from Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado that show how regulators translate guidance into volume cuts, SRAs, and seismic review steps.

9 resources

Oklahoma OCC Advisory - Arbuckle Disposal Cuts (Jan 4, 2016)

Defines the first wave of Arbuckle-group volume reductions, depth limits, and monitoring gear requirements for high-rate SWDs.

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Oklahoma OCC Fairview Plan (Jan 13, 2016)

Area-specific directive that tightens injection ceilings and forces rapid data delivery when seismic swarms migrate northwest.

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Seismological Society of America - Oklahoma Rate Drop

Post-mortem showing how plugging deep wells and slashing volumes collapsed earthquake rates after the 2015-2016 peak.

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Texas RRC - Seismicity Review

Outlines spacing guidance, data expectations, and siting criteria for disposal wells near active zones.

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Texas RRC - Seismicity Response Areas

Explains how SRAs like Gardendale give the commission authority to suspend, modify, or deny permits inside earthquake clusters.

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RRC NTO - Permian Basin Monitoring & Reporting (2023)

Requires static bottom-hole pressure data and high-frequency volume reporting so the commission can watch pressure diffusion in SRAs.

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Midland Reporter-Telegram - Culberson-Reeves Enforcement

News coverage of the Blackbuck shutdown orders that shows how SRA authority looks in practice.

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COGCC UIC & Seismicity Memo (2011)

Memo documenting Colorado's early decision to add seismic reviews to every Class II permit after the Raton Basin sequence.

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FNREL Survey - Regulations Relevant to Induced Seismicity

Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation paper comparing how multiple states weave seismic triggers into injection permitting.

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Major Reports & Technical Guides

Cross-cutting syntheses from the National Academies, USGS, EPA, and GWPC that turn anecdotes into monitoring and traffic-light requirements.

9 resources

National Academies - Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies

Foundational 2013 study recommending baseline monitoring, probabilistic hazard updates, and traffic-light systems across energy technologies.

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National Academies Report Brief

Four-page executive summary you can drop into board slides when someone asks for the elevator pitch.

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USGS Circular 1509 - Induced Seismicity Strategic Vision (2024)

USGS roadmap that defines research priorities for oil and gas, geothermal, and CO2 storage induced events.

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USGS - Induced Earthquakes Overview

Context for Pawnee, Cushing, and other central U.S. events plus core FAQs for stakeholders.

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USGS - Induced Earthquakes FAQ

Explains why a few percent of the 40,000+ Class II wells create most of the problems and how the agency differentiates natural vs induced.

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USGS Short-Term Induced Seismicity Models

One-year hazard forecasts that explicitly include induced events, useful when you need to talk insurance and design loads.

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USGS - Observational Studies of Induced Earthquakes

Temporary seismic deployments and data products regulators can request when approving high-risk projects.

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GWPC - Potential Induced Seismicity Guide (2021, 3rd ed.)

State-driven manual covering wastewater, hydraulic fracturing, and CCUS with concrete monitoring and traffic-light steps.

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GWPC Topic Hub - Induced Seismicity

Gateway to StatesFirst, EXCHANGE, and other practitioner decks for sharing anomalies across programs.

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Academic Reviews & Hazard Science

The papers everyone cites when they claim to understand how rate, volume, geology, and monitoring govern induced earthquake risk.

11 resources

Ellsworth 2013 - Injection-Induced Earthquakes (Science)

Global synthesis of how pore pressure diffusion on pre-existing faults drives induced events across industries.

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Foulger et al. 2018 - Global Review of Human-Induced Earthquakes

HiQuake database analysis of 700+ sequences that proves Mw 5+ induced events are rare but real.

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Keranen & Weingarten 2018 - Induced Seismicity (AREPS)

Modern review tying Oklahoma and mid-continent case studies to rate, depth, and fault orientation physics.

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Weingarten et al. 2015 - High-Rate Injection

Data-rich Science paper proving that high-rate Class II wells explain the U.S. mid-continent seismicity surge.

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McGarr 2014 - Maximum Magnitude from Fluid Injection

Derives conservative Mmax estimates proportional to total injected volume, a staple for risk matrices.

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Langenbruch & Zoback 2018 - Physics-Based Forecasting

Nature Communications model linking injection rate reductions to hazard declines with realistic time lags.

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Keranen et al. 2014 - Sharp Increase in Oklahoma Seismicity

Science paper that tied Jones and Prague sequences directly to wastewater injection into basement faults.

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Hincks et al. 2018 - Oklahoma's Induced Seismicity

Companion Science article that quantifies wastewater links using statistical attribution.

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van der Baan et al. 2017 - Human-Induced Seismicity & Hydrocarbon Production

Shows depletion and production swings can matter almost as much as disposal in critically stressed basins.

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Schultz et al. 2023 - Underground Storage Risk

GSL special publication connecting induced seismicity risk management to CO2, gas, and hydrogen storage projects.

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Induced Seismicity Review (2018) - ResearchGate Mirror

Firehose-style review summarizing triggering physics, monitoring strategies, and open research questions.

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Why This Matters

Mitigation Requires Authority Plus Receipts

Induced seismicity governance is really a Safe Drinking Water Act story - UIC permits already have the authority, the work is enforcing it before Mw 5s trend on social.

Traffic-light systems only work when paired with real-time injection data, bottom-hole pressures, and temporary seismic networks you can deploy overnight.

Physics-based hazard forecasts are finally catching up: combine McGarr-style Mmax limits with Langenbruch-Zoback rate models and you have board-ready risk numbers.

Every successful mitigation effort looked the same - baseline monitoring, rapid data sharing, and a regulator willing to shut the valves when thresholds trip.

Short Take: Build Your Stack

Regulatory spine: EPA NTW paper + Class VI rule + CRS briefings so counsel understands the authority.
State response kits: OCC Arbuckle directives, Texas SRAs, Colorado seismic review memos, and LawAtlas comparisons.
Technical glue: National Academies 2013, USGS 2024 strategic vision, GWPC 2021 guide, and the short-term hazard models.
Science receipts: Ellsworth, Foulger, Keranen & Weingarten, Weingarten 2015, McGarr, Langenbruch-Zoback, and Schultz on storage risk.

Let’s Work Together

Send subsurface data, seismic monitoring requests, or policy briefs to info@envitrace.com and we will help translate them into pressure thresholds, monitoring plans, and decision support inside LAPIS.