Exploitation of energy resources has been of interest to several governments around the world in recent years. Developments in shale gas extraction methods as well as the growing interest towards the use of geothermal energy triggered a collateral issue: earthquakes. Regions housing the energy sources, most of which are not seismically active traditionally, have become earthquake prone areas. The most known of such regions is Groningen in The Netherlands, the largest on-land gas field in the world. Very recently regions in the US such as Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, as well as Alberta and British Columbia in Canada are also dealing with non-negligible level of tremors. Such earthquakes are called “human induced earthquakes”, or simply, “induced earthquakes”. This relatively new phenomenon is one of the most popular research topics in the field of earthquake engineering in recent years.
The presentation will give a summary of the induced seismicity events from around the world, as well as the extend of the problem in Groningen. A comprehensive summary of the research being conducted in Groningen will also be presented. Possible research areas, particularly interesting for people working in artificial intelligence, will be discussed.