Oil and gas well completion and stimulation technologies to develop unconventional hydrocarbon resources in the United States have evolved over the past several decades, particularly in relation to the development of shale oil and shale gas. Shale oil and shale gas resources and the technology associated with their production are often termed "unconventional" because the oil and gas trapped inside the shale or other low-permeability rock formation cannot be extracted using conventional technologies. Since about 2005, the application of these technologies to fields in the U.S. have helped produce natural gas and oil in volumes that allowed the country to reduce its crude oil imports by more than 50% and to become a net natural gas exporter. The regional and national economic and energy advances gained through production and use of these resources have been accompanied, however, by rapid expansion of the infrastructure associated with the development of these fields and public concern over the impacts to surface- and groundwater, air, land, and communities where the resources are extracted. A workshop on December 1 and 2, 2016 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, explored the management of risk related to the development of onshore unconventional oil and gas resources such as shale oil and shale gas. The second part of the workshop, on December 2, addressed issues associated with induced seismicity and managing the risk of induced seismic events associated with development of oil and gas fields. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from this second day of the workshop.

An introduction to the principles and applications of passive seismic monitoring, providing an accessible overview of current research and technology.

In the past several years, some energy technologies that inject or extract fluid from the Earth, such as oil and gas development and geothermal energy development, have been found or suspected to cause seismic events, drawing heightened public attention. Although only a very small fraction of injection and extraction activities among the hundreds of thousands of energy development sites in the United States have induced seismicity at levels noticeable to the public, understanding the potential for inducing felt seismic events and for limiting their occurrence and impacts is desirable for state and federal agencies, industry, and the public at large. To better understand, limit, and respond to induced seismic events, work is needed to build robust prediction models, to assess potential hazards, and to help relevant agencies coordinate to address them. Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies identifies gaps in knowledge and research needed to advance the understanding of induced seismicity; identify gaps in induced seismic hazard assessment methodologies and the research to close those gaps; and assess options for steps toward best practices with regard to energy development and induced seismicity potential.

Improved Seismic Monitoringâ€"Improved Decision-Making, describes and assesses the varied economic benefits potentially derived from modernizing and expanding seismic monitoring activities in the United States. These benefits include more effective loss avoidance regulations and strategies, improved understanding of earthquake processes, better engineering design, more effective hazard mitigation strategies, and improved emergency response and recovery. The economic principles that must be applied to determine potential benefits are reviewed and the report concludes that although there is insufficient information available at present to fully quantify all the potential benefits, the annual dollar costs for improved seismic monitoring are in the tens of millions and the potential annual dollar benefits are in the hundreds of millions.

This book aims to inform policy-makers, engineers and earth scientists about the current and emerging role of geophysics in addressing environmental processes, assessments, and policy directions related to new and existing dams and levees. Until now geophysics has concentrated on characterization and remediation of dams and levees, but now the field is changing our understanding on the influence of natural processes (e.g., floods, dissolution) and human activities in the design, and management of these structures. This monograph includes advances in the following fields of Dams and Levees studies: · New insights from small and mid-sized laboratory experiments· Integrated methods electromagnetic, seismic, potential methods· Inverse modeling approaches· Statistical considerations· Monitoring of processes attending aging structures · Hazard monitoring· Risk Analysis