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Hydrocarbon Production

Geologic features such as the thickness and depth of a hydrocarbon reservoir, the change in pore pressure during production, and rock stability due to cementation patterns are factors which can affect land subsidence in the exploitation of hydrocarbons. The Plate Boundary Observatory used InSAR data to help site permanent GPS stations in southern California and thereby avoided unstable areas.

Related links of interest:
European Space Agency
USGS: Measuring Human-Induced Land Subsidence from Space

Hydrocarbon Production Figure 1

Figure 1 - Belfridge oil field. Differential interferogram generated from ERS-1 data. Differential interferogram generated from ERS-1 data. An ERS tandem mode pair was used to generate a reference DEM for correction of the elevation phase. Two areas where subsidence occurred are visible. The small area in the northern part of the image is the Lost Hills oil field, the long shaped area in the middle is the Belridge oil field. The area is occupied by agricultural fields and scrublands. The deformation ranges from 1 cm (blue) to 6 cm (red). Courtesy of ASI.


Last modified Friday, 28-Jan-2011 21:10:24 UTC