Investigation of the influence of earthquakes on the water level in the geothermal reservoir of Waiwera (New Zealand)

Abstract

The water level of the Waiwera geothermal reservoir is mainly governed by the production operations due to a commonly strong pumping signal. However, in the hours and days after the Kaikoura earthquake on 14 November 2016, it increased by more than 0.5 m, indicating that seismic events can have an influence as well. In a continuous time series consisting of monthly means of water level data and pumping rates starting in 1986, we tried to determine if events above a certain strength alter groundwater dynamics at Waiwera in general. We applied an empirical equation and calculated the on-site seismic energy density from earthquake magnitudes and distances. All recorded earthquakes with a magnitude above 4 within a radius of about 1500 km around New Zealand have been taken into account. A clear correlation cannot be proven but none of the recorded earthquakes led to such a high energy density in Waiwera as the Kaikoura event did. For the future, it is recommended to increase the resolution of the metred water production rates to daily averages to improve the detectability of water level changes following earthquakes.