Induced seismicity due to the oil production in Tbilisi region, Georgia

Abstract

30 km to the north-east from the Tbilisi hydrothermal field (THF) the oil field has been revealed. The intensive oil production in 80-s disturbs the regime of the central hydrothermal deposit and causes depletion and desalination of springs. Later on, after cessation of intensive extraction, the regime of hydrothermal field was recovered. These facts point to the significant change of pore pressure conditions during oil production process and triggered an idea to analyze the seismic activity in the period of oil production. As it is well known that the pore pressure change may provoke changes in the seismic activity (Gupta and Rastogi, 1976, Grasso and Sornette, 1998) the attempt is made to assess seismic effects induced by the oil production in the THF.