Eric von Lunen

Towards Using Seismic Moment Tensor Inversions to Infer Reservoir Rock Properties

Summary Seismic moment tensor inversion is a tool used for high quality microseismic data that reveals the mechanisms responsible for the observed events. Not only do these mechanisms have styles that tend to be consistent with the opening, closure and slip of fracture planes, but careful analysis of the data will suggest different fracture plane orientations that are present in the data. These orientations can be used to define a discrete fracture network, together with an estimate of the size of the events. The variety of these orientations can also show how the rock is breaking, and the more distinct orientataions that are activated can relate to the overall brittleness of the rock.