A Possible Causative Mechanism of Raton Basin, New Mexico and Colorado Earthquakes Using Recent Seismicity Patterns and Pore Pressure Modeling Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth

The Raton Basin had the highest number of earthquakes in Colorado and New Mexico from 2008 to 2010. The rate of both wastewater injection and earthquakes in the basin increased dramatically starting in1999 and 2001, respectively. We compare seismicity ( M L0.0–4.3) in the Raton Basin from 2008 to 2010 with the location of modeled pore pressure increases, estimated from cumulative wastewater injection volume beginning at the onset of well injection to present for all 28 injection wells in the basin. We find that modeled pore pressures in the New Mexico portion of the basin (above 0.08 MPa) reached that necessary to induce seismicity (0.01 –0.1 MPa). We simulate a fault plane, 20 km long, inferred from seismicity in Vermejo