Study on the source parameters of the micro-earthquakes in Laohutai coal mine based on double difference relocation

Abstract

Abstract Seismicity related to industrial mining activities needs to be understood and quantified in order to ensure safe mining operations. It is of great important to determine if the sources of such events follow the common models and theories, and determine the source rupture property and scale of such events. Moreover, the location of the source is very important to obtain the source parameters. For this purpose, we analyze 103 events recorded in the Laohutai coal mine that are related to fault structure and mining activities to determine their source properties based on relocation. Firstly, the 103 micro-earthquakes were relocated based on double difference algorithm. Then, the source parameters of seismic moment M0, source radius R, corner frequency f0, seismic attenuation Q, energy E, stress drop △σ and apparent stress σa are computed based on relocation, Brune model and grid-search method. The relationship between the other source parameters and seismic moment, the relationship between ML and Mw, and the influence of location on source parameters and magnitude are further analyzed. Finally, the difference of the source parameters between Laohutai coal mine, Qianqiu coal mine and natural earthquakes are analyzed. We find that the source location can be effectively corrected based on double difference algorithm; ω2 model is well suited to estimate source parameters of micro-earthquakes in the Laohutai coal mine. The source spectra show strong directivity effects. Stations in the rupture direction have higher corner frequencies, while stations away from rupture direction have lower corner frequencies. With the increase of M0, the source parameters of R, E and △σ basically show a linear increase, the source parameter f0 basically show a linear decrease and the apparent stress fluctuate up and down around a certain value as a whole. After relocation, the location of the source has a significant effect on the quality attenuation factor Q and has no obvious effect on other source parameters. The influence of relocation on moment magnitude and local magnitude is not obvious. The moment magnitude is linear with the local magnitude. Considering Mw, ML1 can relatively well be used to evaluate the magnitude of the earthquakes in Laohutai coal mine; For the micro-earthquakes with the same magnitude, the values of corner frequency, stress drop, apparent stress and energy in Qianqiu coal mine are greater than those in Laohutai coal mine, the value of source radius in Laohutai coal mine is greater than those in Qianqiu coal mine. For the events with the same magnitude, the corner frequency and the stress drop value of micro-earthquakes are smaller than those of natural earthquake. These indicate that the rupture properties and scales of micro-earthquakes in Laohutai coal mine are different from those of the micro-earthquakes in Qianqiu coal mine and natural earthquakes. The results help us to effectively evaluate the property and magnitude of microseismic source, and better understand causes and consequences of microseismicity in coal mine.