LBNL Establishes Seismic Monitoring Networks Across Enhanced Geothermal Systems Sites
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has published a review of its seismic monitoring programs across ten Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) and conventional geothermal sites in the United States. The paper summarizes operational challenges including noise mitigation, sensor coupling, data transmission, and real-time processing encountered across diverse geological settings. The work is significant because managing induced seismicity is a key barrier to broader EGS deployment, and the authors are working to make the datasets publicly accessible for future research.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have released a preprint on arXiv detailing their multi-site seismic monitoring efforts at geothermal fields including the Geysers, Desert Peak, Brady Hot Springs, Raft River, Newberry, Patua, Don A. Campbell, Jersey Valley, Utah FORGE, and Cape Modern. The 23-page paper, which includes 8 figures and 1 table, reviews the current status of LBNL-operated seismic networks and distills lessons learned from long-term sensor deployment. A central focus is understanding thermo-hydrological-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes that govern reservoir evolution and induced seismicity. The authors discuss practical operational challenges such as sensor coupling quality, data transmission reliability, and maintaining data integrity over extended monitoring periods. The review also emphasizes ongoing efforts to make these multi-site datasets publicly available, which could substantially benefit the broader geothermal and induced seismicity research community. Enhanced Geothermal Systems are considered a promising source of baseload renewable energy, but concerns about triggered earthquakes remain a critical obstacle to widespread adoption.
What's missing
The paper is a conference-style presentation preprint and has not yet undergone formal peer review. The abstract does not specify the time span covered by the monitoring records or quantify the magnitude ranges and rates of induced seismicity observed, leaving open questions about the generalizability of lessons learned to other geological settings or international EGS projects.
What different sources said
- arXiv physicsCenter
Historical Seismic Monitoring of EGS and Conventional Geothermal Fields: LBNL Efforts and Lessons Learned
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