Effect of fault activation on the hydraulic connectivity of faults in mudstone

Ono, Hirokazu ; Ishii, Eiichi   

An injection test and repeated packer tests were performed for a fault in siliceous mudstone in order to activate the fault and to investigate the change in hydraulic connectivity of the fault before and after the fault activation. The injection test successfully induced a remarkable dilational-shear failure within the fault. Pressure changes measured by the repeated packer tests were analyzed before and after the failure, where the log-log plots of pressure derivatives changed after the failure from an upward-trend indicating a limited extent of flow-paths to a horizontal trend suggesting well-connected flow-paths. After the borehole had been open for six weeks, the pressure derivatives were restored to an upward trend. This reversible change in pressure derivatives means that the hydraulic connectivity of the fault temporarily increased during and just after the injection but fault activation did not irreversibly affect the initially low hydraulic connectivity of the fault. This transition in the hydraulic connectivity of the fault is also consisted with the variation of fluid pressure monitored at a neighboring observation hole. We propose that analyzing the pressure derivatives obtained by repeated packer tests before and after the injection in a single borehole is effective to assess the sensitivity of hydraulic disconnectivity of faults to fault activation, which is crucial information for safety assessment of radioactive waste disposal.