Current Situation of Microseismic Monitoring and Vector Scanning

The current situation of microseismic monitoring at home and abroad is not optimistic. The principles, data acquisition, data processing, and intepretation of many monitoring methods are far from the requirements of microseismic monitoring characteristics, and far from the level of analyzing specific microseismicity. We argue that the main technical reason for this situation is still the lack of understanding of microseismic characteristics and the corresponding monitoring characteristics, so that the development and application of microseismic monitoring are not based on strict seismology, geology, rock mechanics, a large number of reliable experiments, and mathematical statistics. Microseismic monitoring is even more difficult than monitoring stealth aircraft and navigators, in which the target and detector are separated by fluid, and there is always some way to test them. This paper first summarizes the characteristics of microseismic and its monitoring. Based on this, as well as the most basic requirements of seismometry, various monitoring methods are discussed, including their applicable conditions, limitations and development prospects. This discussion shows that the development and application of microseismic monitoring have to be based on the reality of low signal-to-noise ratio, even after avoiding strong noise sources as much as possible during data acquisition and effectively denoising during processing. This paper then reports that in the past two to three years, following the review ("Microseismic and its monitoring") in January 2023, our Vector Scanning (VS) for microseismic ground monitoring has been greatly improved, including an in-depth understanding of the VS principles, the refinement of the conditions necessary for the success of the VS application with a high probability, and their quantitative integration in the VS automated process of data processing and interpretation. A large number of cases are available for mathematical statistics, which provide a basis for analyzing the details of microseismicity. Finally, we describe the specific morphology of the Stimulated Rock Volume (SRV) induced by fracturing, the relationship between the corresponding deformation and the stress fields (equivalent microseismic focal mechanism), and the effect of production measures such as pump shutdown. The necessary conditions, monitoring output patterns, some analyses and questions described here also provide a basis for the test of the microseismic monitoring.