Tag: Brian W. Stump

Science Insider: Does North Korea really have an H-bomb?

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 7, 2016

Science Insider, the online news site for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, quoted SMU seismologist Brian Stump, saying seismic data confirms that an earthquake in North Korea was triggered by an explosion there Jan. 5.

Richard Stone, who covers international news for Science, quoted Stump in a Jan. 6 article, “Does North Korea really have an H-bomb?”

Stump’s work in detecting ground motion from explosions has for more than 20 years proved invaluable to the United States government in ensuring that the world’s nuclear powers abide by their agreements related to underground nuclear testing. He served as scientific adviser to the U.S. delegation to the Conference on Disarmament from 1994 through 1996 and continues to be called upon frequently to assist the U.S. government in the interpretation of seismic and acoustic data.

In 2014 he was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow for distinguished contributions to his field, particularly in the area of seismic monitoring in support of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Stump is Albritton Chair of Geological Sciences in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences in SMU’s Dedman College.

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EXCERPT:

By Richard Stone
Science Insider
North Korea claims to have detonated its first hydrogen bomb yesterday. But experts are skeptical that the pariah state detonated—not an ordinary atomic device—but a much more powerful “H-bomb of justice,” as state media is now calling it. So what kind of device did the reclusive regime test? And how can nuclear jockeys make such a determination from afar?

There’s no doubt that North Korea detonated something near where it conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, and 2013. Seismic stations yesterday recorded a magnitude-5.1 earthquake with a waveform nearly identical to those registered after North Korea’s earlier tests, supporting its claim. The waveform confirms that an explosion triggered yesterday’s earthquake, says Brian Stump, a seismologist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. “It could be a chemical or nuclear explosion, but because of the magnitude it is likely a nuclear explosion,” he says. Researchers are now “chewing through the waveforms” registered by seismometers in the region “to see what’s different from 2013,” says Andy Frassetto, a seismologist with the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology consortium in Washington, D.C.

The estimated magnitude of yesterday’s detonation, 7 to 10 kilotons, equates to a small fission bomb. Compared to standard H-bombs, which get most of their ferocity from fusing hydrogen, that’s downright puny. The most powerful H-bomb ever tested had a yield of 50 megatons, around 2000 times more powerful than the 21-kiloton bomb dropped on Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

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Tags Brian W. Stump, Dedman College, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

Earth & Climate Energy & Matter Researcher news SMU In The News

Dallas Morning News: Mounting evidence suggests Dallas quakes are induced by human activity

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date January 5, 2016

Evidence that human activity is behind the Dallas quakes includes a new analysis showing that the faults beneath Dallas and Fort Worth had been dormant for hundreds of millions of years until 2008.

SMU seismologists presented new earthquake findings at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting. (Credit: DMN)

Science journalist Anna Kuchment with The Dallas Morning News covered the comments of SMU seismologists Heather DeShon and Beatrice Magnani speaking during the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, Calif. DeShon and Magnani presented their latest research on North Texas ground shaking.

The SMU seismology team, which includes DeShon and Magnani, published new evidence of human involvement in earthquakes in Nature Communications in April 2015. Their data showed that large volumes of wastewater injection combined with saltwater (brine) extraction from natural gas wells is the most likely cause of earthquakes near Azle, Texas, from late 2013 through spring 2014.

The Dallas Morning News article published Dec. 16, 2015.

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EXCERPT:

By Anna Kuchment
The Dallas Morning News
Scientists presented new evidence this week suggesting that all five North Texas earthquake sequences, including those in Dallas, have been triggered by humans.

Until now, researchers have not commented on the cause of the Dallas-Irving quakes or the 4-magnitude quake that struck Venus, 30 miles south of Dallas, in May.

While scientists believe that high-volume injection wells may have triggered the quakes in Venus, they have not yet worked out a specific mechanism behind the Dallas and Irving quakes.

“We don’t think they’re natural,” SMU seismologist Heather DeShon told The Dallas Morning News. “But we don’t understand the subsurface physics surrounding the Irving earthquake sequence, so we’re still considering all causes.”

DeShon’s comments came during the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, where she and her colleagues presented their latest research on North Texas ground shaking. The research has not yet been independently vetted and published.

“Any discussion of causation for the Dallas-area quakes is premature, and more speculative than scientific,” said Steve Everley, a senior advisor for Energy In Depth, a program of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. “But the SMU team has helped advance our understanding of the conditions that can ultimately lead to induced seismicity, so we’re eager to see what they will publish about the seismic events near Dallas.”

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Tags Beatrice Magnani, Brian W. Stump, Chris Hayward, Dedman College, Heather R. DeShon, Matthew J. Hornbach, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

Culture, Society & Family Earth & Climate Energy & Matter Researcher news

SMU seismology team to cooperate with state, federal scientists in study of May 7 Venus, Texas earthquake

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date May 8, 2015

Scientists had been observing smaller quakes in area; SMU seismology team has developed expertise to deploy instruments, analyze and sharedata

SMU’s seismology team was not surprised by the magnitude 4.0 earthquake that occurred near Venus, Texas, Thursday evening, having been aware of multiple smaller earthquakes identified by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in the area in recent months. They are recommending a regional monitoring network.

“We emphasized to the House Committee on Energy Resources the need for a permanent regional network, supplemented by portable instruments, that we can deploy in a time-sensitive manner when earthquakes occur,” said Matthew Hornbach, SMU associate professor of geophysics.

“The seismology team at SMU has developed the expertise to deploy these instruments, analyze and share that data,” said Brian Stump, SMU Albritton Chair of Geological Sciences. “We are committed to cooperate, as resources allow, with both state and federal agencies in addressing these issues,” Stump said.

Currently SMU has 26 seismic instruments deployed in North Texas, split between an area near Azle, Texas, SMU, earthquakes, seismology that experienced a series of earthquakes from late 2013 through spring 2014, and along a fault straddling the Irving-Dallas, Texas, earthquakes, SMU, seismology line where earthquakes have been occurring near the site of the old Texas Stadium.

“We are in the process of determining what resources might be available so that we can respond to the largest earthquake now felt in North Texas,” said Heather DeShon, SMU associate professor of geophysics. Previous SMU deployments have relied heavily on loaned monitoring equipment from the USGS and the academic consortium known as IRIS – Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology. “We are still in the process of determining how many instruments might be available for this purpose in light of ongoing earthquake activity around the world, such as the recent earthquake in Nepal,” DeShon said.

The magnitude 4.0 earthquake (M4) recorded by the USGS in Venus at 5:58 p.m. Thursday is part of a series of smaller earthquakes the SMU team has been following in the Midlothian area. The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) has reported seven earthquakes within 10 kilometers of the USGS location for the May 7 Venus earthquake, with three of them (including the most recent) occurring at or above magnitude 3. There have been 23 earthquakes recorded within 20 kilometers of the Venus location, since 2009, with five of them registering higher than an M3.

SMU first started studying earthquakes in Johnson County for a series of earthquakes occurring in Cleburne in 2009, culminating in the peer reviewed “Analysis of the Cleburne, Texas, Earthquake Sequence from June 2009 to June 2010 (doi: 10.1785/0120120336 Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America October 2013). The SMU team also is watching with interest an additional area of seismicity (based on USGS locations) near Mineral Wells.

“I don’t think any of us was surprised by Thursday’s event,” DeShon said. “There have been a series of magnitude 3 and greater earthquakes in the Johnson County area. If you have movement on a fault and change the stresses, you increase the likelihood of additional earthquakes. In other words, one earthquake frequently leads to another.”

The SMU team noted that the USGS web site for the event contains an analysis of the data that estimates fault motion striking from the northeast to the southwest – consistent with other earthquake sequences SMU has studied in North Texas.

“This illustrates that we all need to think about the possibility of larger earthquakes in the region where we live,” Stump said. — Kimberly Cobb

Tags Beatrice Magnani, Brian W. Stump, Chris Hayward, Dedman College, Heather R. DeShon, Matthew J. Hornbach, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

Earth & Climate Energy & Matter Researcher news SMU In The News

WFAA 8 ABC: Geologists release details of Azle earthquakes study

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 22, 2015

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

WFAA 8 ABC news reporter Byron Harris reported on the SMU-led team of seismologists whose recent study found that large volumes of wastewater injection combined with saltwater (brine) extraction from natural gas wells is the most likely cause of earthquakes near Azle, Texas, from late 2013 through spring 2014.

The study published in Nature Communications.

WFAA aired their segment, Geologists release details of Azle earthquakes study, April, 21, 2015.

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EXCERPT:

By Byron Harris
WFAA 8 ABC
The seismology team led by SMU that has been researching local earthquakes believes it’s found a cause for the ones that hit Azle a couple of years ago.

“Causal Factors for Seismicity near Azle, Texas” was published in Nature Communications. A press release about the findings of the study was released on Tuesday.

It states that the team at SMU found “high volumes of wastewater injection combined with saltwater (brine) extraction from natural gas wells is the most likely cause of earthquakes.”

Oil and gas drilling takes water out of the ground as a product of energy production. And that water is pumped back into the ground in wastewater injection wells. SMU geologists measured those activities, centered around the Newark East Gas Field north and east of Azle.

They found 70 energy-producing wells in the field, and two adjacent wastewater injection wells. Increased levels of water injection and withdrawal corresponded with the earthquakes, the report says.

The quakes hit Azle between late 2013 and spring of 2014. The town saw seven quakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher in that period. A 3D model was developed to investigate two intersecting faults and estimate stress changes.

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Tags Beatrice Magnani, Brian W. Stump, Chris Hayward, Dedman College, Heather R. DeShon, Matthew J. Hornbach, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

Earth & Climate Energy & Matter Researcher news SMU In The News

Dallas Morning News: Azle earthquakes likely caused by oil and gas operations, study says

Post author By Margaret Allen
Post date April 21, 2015

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

A sign marks the entrance to an EnerVest wellsite in Parker County. SMU researchers detemined that an EnerVest wastewater well was one of two such sites exerting the greatest pressure on the fault where earthquakes occurred starting in November 2013. Workers buried about 120 million gallons of fluid at the site between October 2010 and September 2013. (DMN)

Science journalist Anna Kuchment with The Dallas Morning News covered the research of an SMU-led team of seismologists whose recent study found that large volumes of wastewater injection combined with saltwater (brine) extraction from natural gas wells is the most likely cause of earthquakes near Azle, Texas, from late 2013 through spring 2014.

The study published in Nature Communications.

The Dallas Morning News article published April, 21, 2015.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Anna Kuchment
The Dallas Morning News
Oil and gas operations are the most likely cause of dozens of earthquakes that began rattling the North Texas towns of Azle and Reno in November 2013, a group of scientists has concluded.

The study, led by researchers at SMU and published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, presents some of the most conclusive evidence yet that humans are shifting faults below Dallas-Fort Worth that have not budged in hundreds of millions of years.

While experts have not yet determined what’s causing the shaking in Dallas and Irving, the new paper previews aspects of that study and includes suggestions that will help speed research.

“It’s certainly one of the best cases in the literature,” said Art McGarr of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program in Menlo Park, Calif.

The new findings contradict statements by the Railroad Commission of Texas that there are no definitive links between oil and gas activity and earthquakes in the state.

Shown an embargoed version of the paper, the commission’s staff seismologist Craig Pearson wrote in a statement that “the study raises many questions with regard to its methodology, the information used and conclusions it reaches.” But he declined to answer specific questions before meeting with the paper’s authors. The Railroad Commission regulates the oil and gas industry.

The Azle study is the result of a yearlong collaboration involving 11 researchers at SMU, the University of Texas at Austin, and the U.S. Geological Survey and was reviewed by independent experts before publication.

The scientists zeroed in on an unusual mechanism behind the quakes: workers pushing liquid into the ground on one side of a fault and sucking gas and groundwater from the other side of the fault.

“The combination of these activities seems to have triggered the earthquakes, and that was a real surprise to us,” said Matthew Hornbach, a geophysicist at SMU and a lead author of the paper.

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

The geology of each region is unique, however, so these mechanisms may not be at work elsewhere.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

Tags Beatrice Magnani, Brian W. Stump, Chris Hayward, Dedman College, Heather R. DeShon, Matthew J. Hornbach, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences

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Evidence that human activity is behind the Dallas quakes includes a new analysis showing that the faults beneath Dallas and Fort Worth had been dormant for hundreds of millions of years until 2008.

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

Scientists had been observing smaller quakes in area; SMU seismology team has developed expertise to deploy instruments, analyze and sharedata

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

Injecting fluids into the ground or extracting them has long been known to cause quakes, but rarely — if ever — have the two been caught acting in concert.

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news