Ryan Visser

• Bachelor of Science
• Researcher at Natural Resources Canada

Previous studies mainly attribute injection‐induced earthquakes (IIE) to hydraulic fracturing (HF) operations in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB), whereas the role of wastewater disposal (WD) has been largely overlooked. One particular reason is that HF operations usually exhibit a clearer spatiotemporal relationship to IIE than WD. Howe...

Riedel shear structures (RSS) are often observed in the embryonic stage of strike‐slip fault development, which can be depicted in the field through outcrops and coseismic surface ruptures. It is a critical concept linking the geomechanical behavior of individual earthquakes to structural geology at both local and regional scales. However, the infl...

Many factors, both natural and anthropogenic, can influence the seismogenic pattern of injection-induced earthquakes (IIE). With an enhanced earthquake catalog and a comprehensive fluid injection database compiled for the southern Montney play in northeast British Columbia, we explore the relative significance of the potential controlling factors o...

In this study, we develop an integrated framework for simultaneous detection of seismic events and picking phase arrival times, phase association, and locating earthquakes. The proposed model combines the accuracy of convolutional neural networks for classification tasks and the efficiency of waveform-based algorithms for identifying coherent seism...

Recent studies confirm that the distribution of injection-induced earthquakes (IIE) can be related to both natural (e.g., tectonic, geological, and hydrological) settings and operational details. However, the relative importance of operational factors with respect to the natural ones has not been fully understood for the western Canada sedimentary...

Plain Language Summary Fluid injection‐induced earthquakes (IIE), especially those M ≥ 4 mainshocks, are often observed to occur near or after well completion. Such delayed triggering relative to injection commencement poses serious challenges for both regulators and the energy industry to establish an effective mitigation strategy for the potentia...

Plain Language Summary Earthquakes can be triggered during the injections of both hydraulic fracturing and wastewater disposal. In the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, the latter injection type appears to have caused much fewer earthquakes than the former. Recently, a sequence of 43 small‐to‐moderate‐sized earthquakes occurred in a seismically q...

To characterize the subsurface geomechanical response to hydraulic fracturing (HF) activities, we study the spatiotemporal changes of seismic velocity during the completion of four HF wells in the Fox Creek area, Alberta, Canada. We estimate temporal velocity changes (dv/v) from ambient seismic noise recorded during the Tony Creek Dual Microseismic...

The damage potential of induced earthquakes associated with fluid injection is a major concern in hydrocarbon resource development. An important source of data for the assessment of damage is macroseismic intensity perceived by people and structures. In the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) where the occurrence of seismicity is mostly related...

The BC Seismic Research Consortium (BC SRC) was established by Geoscience BC, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the BC Oil and Gas Commission (BCOGC). It followed a recommendation from the BCOGC in response to concerns regarding induced seismicity associated with hydraulic fracturing in the...

The observations of spatiotemporal distribution of seismicity in western Canada indicate that the occurrence of earthquakes is tied to the hydraulic fracturing operations and disposal of coproduced wastewater. In this study, we investigate the temporal changes in the frequency‐magnitude distributions for multiple clusters of induced events in regio...

To characterize the subsurface geomechanical response to hydraulic fracturing activities, we study the spatiotemporal changes of seismic velocity during the completion of four injection wells in the Fox Creek area, Alberta, Canada. We estimate temporal velocity changes (dv/v) from ambient seismic noise recorded during the Tony Creek Dual Microseism...

We present detailed velocity and density models for the Montney unconventional resource play in northeast British Columbia, Canada. The new models are specifically essential for robust hypocenter determination in the areas undergoing multistage hydraulic‐fracturing operations and for detailed analysis of induced seismicity processes in the region....

Recent improvements in seismic data processing techniques have enhanced our ability to detail the evolution of major earthquake sequences in space and time. One such advance is new scanning algorithms that allow large volumes of waveform data to be analysed automatically, removing human biases and inefficiencies that inhibit standardized monitoring...

Mining activities are well known for being able to induce local seismicity but have not yet been shown to cause earthquakes over large distances. We analyze a particular group of seismic events recorded from 2014 to 2016 in north‐central British Columbia (BC) that appear to be triggered by the activities at the Mount Milligan Mine. The spatial dist...

To gain a better understanding of induced seismicity in northeastern British Columbia, we conducted an analysis of seismic data to locate earthquakes that occurred within the area of 55.5˚N-56.3˚N and 119.8˚W-121.2˚W for the years of 2017 and 2018. This catalogue contains earthquakes that were detected and located using a combination of manual anal...

We provide a close look at the source mechanism of hydraulically fractured induced earthquakes and the in situ stress field within the southern Montney unconventional play in the northeast British Columbia, Canada. P-wave first-motion focal mechanisms were obtained for 66 earthquakes with magnitudes between 1.5 and 4.6. Results show that strike-sli...

Our recently published GRL paper (Induced seismicity in western Canada linked to tectonic strain rate: Implications for regional seismic hazard. Geophysical Research Letters, 45, 11,104-11,115. https://doi.org/10.1029/) is now available as Science Highlights from IRIS: "In the US, most induced earthquakes are the result of wastewater injection, whe...

The availability of abundant digital seismic records and successful application of deep learning in pattern recognition and classification problems enable us to achieve a reliable earthquake detection framework. To overcome the limitations and challenges of conventional methods, which are mainly due to an incomplete set of template waveforms and lo...

A rapid increase of injection-induced earthquakes (IIE) is often linked to a higher level of seismic hazard. In this study, we compare the geodetically defined moment rate to seismicity distribution in western Canada where significant IIE are observed. The regional seismic pattern is dominated by IIE, both in number and moment, along a 150-km wide...

In response to the increasing concern of possible seismic risk due to injection operations during development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources, regulators in both British Columbia (BC) and Alberta (AB), Canada, have adopted varying aspects of a traffic light protocol as part of their individual oversight and risk mitigation strategies. In th...

To gain a better understanding of induced seismicity in northeast British Columbia and western Alberta, we conducted an intensive analysis of seismic data to locate earthquakes that occurred within the area of 52˚N–61˚N, 126˚W–115˚W for the years of 2014 through 2016. Continuous seismic waveforms from as many as 43 stations operated by various orga...