Fault roughness controls seismicity front migration during fluid injection

Fault roughness controls seismicity front migration during fluid injection | Authorea try { document.documentElement.classList.add('js'); } catch (e) { } var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'G-8VDV14Y67G']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Skip to main content Preprints Collections Wiley Open Research IET Open Research Ecological Society of Japan All Collections About About Authorea FAQs Contact Us Quick Search anywhere Search for preprint articles, keywords, etc. Search Search ADVANCED SEARCH SCROLL This is a preprint and has not been peer reviewed. Data may be preliminary. 1 December 2025 V1 Latest version Share on Fault roughness controls seismicity front migration during fluid injection Authors : Hsiao-Fan Lin 0000-0003-0189-2592 [email protected] , Thibault Candela 0000-0002-8450-0613 , and Jean-Paul Ampuero 0000-0002-4827-7987 Authors Info & Affiliations https://doi.org/10.22541/au.176463262.29739611/v1 Published Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth Version of record Peer review timeline 120 views 98 downloads Contents Abstract Supplementary Material Information & Authors Metrics & Citations View Options References Figures Tables Media Share Abstract The increasing occurrence of injection-induced earthquakes has raised public concern and highlighted the importance of understanding subsurface processes and mechanisms to assess induced seismic hazards and risks. We develop a simple physics-based model to investigate how fault roughness controls the migration of seismicity during fluid injection. Simulations reproduce key observations: diffusion-like seismicity migration and back-fronts. The apparent diffusivity of seismicity fronts can deviate significantly from the hydraulic diffusivity. Faults, with realistic roughness, generally display slow seismicity migration, producing apparent diffusivities far below the hydraulic values. Thus, seismicity fronts often lag behind the pressure front, especially at low initial stresses and small roughness amplitudes. Only in the rare case of very rough faults stressed very close to failure, apparent diffusivity can exceed the hydraulic diffusivity, leading to seismicity fronts that outpace pressure fronts. In our model, the emergence of a back-front near the injector well during continuous injection is caused by stress released by early rupture events. These findings demonstrate that fault roughness and initial stress environment control the migration speed of induced seismicity through their influence on the criticality of the fault and stress transfer, and provide valuable insights to interpret seismicity migration patterns in fluid injection scenarios. Supplementary Material File (1056247_0_merged_1764077015.pdf) Download 8.99 MB File (lin2025_si_v1.pdf) Download 15.31 MB Information & Authors Information Version history V1 Version 1 01 December 2025 Peer review timeline Published Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth Version of Record 6 Mar 2026 Published Copyright This work is licensed under a Non Exclusive No Reuse License. Keywords diffusivity fault roughness induced seismicity seismicity migration Authors Affiliations Hsiao-Fan Lin 0000-0003-0189-2592 [email protected] Geoazur View all articles by this author Thibault Candela 0000-0002-8450-0613 TNO View all articles by this author Jean-Paul Ampuero 0000-0002-4827-7987 Geoazur View all articles by this author Metrics & Citations Metrics Article Usage 120 views 98 downloads .FvxKWukQNSOunydq8rnd { width: 100px; } Citations Download citation Hsiao-Fan Lin, Thibault Candela, Jean-Paul Ampuero. Fault roughness controls seismicity front migration during fluid injection. Authorea . 01 December 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22541/au.176463262.29739611/v1 If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download. For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu . 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