Dam impoundment near active faults in areas with high seismic potential: Case studies from Bisri and Mseilha dams, Lebanon

Abstract

Reservoir induced seismicity is caused by stress changes due to the impoundment of water behind dams. In seismically active areas, the presence of critically located active faults makes the impoundment of water behind dams a seismic safety risk. Dam projects in Lebanon have become a soaring example of complacency and negligence that has overlooked the concerns for seismic safety raised over the projects and their high potential of inducing seismicity. In this paper, we use 2D and 3D fully coupled poroelastic modeling to assess the risk of dam impoundment on seismogenic faults located near dam sites in Lebanon. The coulomb failure stresses are calculated along the faults, and their variations are observed in relation to changes in pore pressures and normal stresses. In addition, the expected maximum earthquake magnitudes are computed along those faults. Our results show a high risk for reservoir induced seismicity on faults that are either underneath the reservoir or hydraulically connected to a fault beneath the reservoir. Consequently, the studied dams would present a serious hazard of induced seismicity in time where the region is already at high risk of destructive earthquakes after the catastrophic seismic events that struck Turkey and Syria on 6 February 2023 on the Eastern Anatolian Fault, which is connected to the Dead Sea Transform Fault that passes through Lebanon.