5.5 Earthquake Associated with S. Korean Geothermal Plant

[BillTre]

Science magazine news article here.

 

[berkeman]

Oops, that is awkward...

This shouldn’t derail the broader development of enhanced geothermal, Wiemer adds. After all, the United States has found ways to tolerate many larger quakes tied to wastewater injection. And the Pohang event, whatever its cause, will likely be a boon for the study of earthquake formation, Ellsworth adds. Very rarely is the source of a quake so directly imaged. “We have a lot to learn from careful analysis and study of this event.”

 

[Astronuc]

Oops, that is awkward...

Big Oooops. What could happen?

Perched on South Korea’s southeast coast and far from grinding tectonic plates, Pohang is an unlikely spot for a big earthquake. Before the geothermal plant’s two wells were drilled, there had never been an earthquake there of any significance, says Kwanghee Kim, a seismologist at Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea, and lead author of one study. But while Kim was monitoring the aftermath of an unrelated earthquake in 2016, he began to detect rumbles from Pohang. That prompted his lab to deploy eight temporary seismic sensors at the site, which were finally in place on 10 November 2017. He expected any quakes to be small—after all, the largest previous quake tied to enhanced geothermal power, in Basel, Switzerland, was just 3.4 in magnitude.

It took only 5 days to be proved wrong.

$38 million plant causes $52 million in damage, and injured 90 people (cost not provided).

Meanwhile, don't park next to brick buildings, especially tall ones.