2021 - Quantifying the relation between Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and earthquake risk
Main content
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has been proposed to reduce atmospheric CO2, and developing CCS technology is a priority of the Norwegian government(e.g., Northern Lights Project).The injection of CO2 into the ground will change crustal stresses at local scale and may thus affect seismic activity. Modelling of such processes will be done in the new VISTACSDCenter at UiB. In this project we will investigate how CCS may affect earthquake hazard in Norwayand vice versa. We will also evaluatethe environmental and economic implications of such changes.
The main objectives are:
1.Develop baseline probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA)for Norway.
2.Systematically analyze seismicity over long time scales at active test sites for CCS, using data from the Norwegian National Seismic Network.
3.Analyze site-specific seismic hazard at CCS test sites based on modeling done in other projects, e.g. VISTA CSD.
4.Assess the environmental and economic consequences of the changes in seismic hazard identified in objectives 2 and 3.
Final outcomes will be:
a)An open and state-of-the-art seismic hazard model that is required to assess risk to CCS.
b)An understanding of the additional seismic hazard posed by CCS.
c)A thorough analysis of the societal consequences of increased seismic hazard due to CCS.
