- Article
- Open access
- Published:
A theory of rock core-based methods for in-situ stress measurement
Earth, Planets and Space volume 61, pages 1143–1161 (2009)
Abstract
The behavior of the inelastic strain of rocks under the loading of compression reflects the history of stresses applied to the rocks. A number of methods based on this rock property of stress memory have been proposed for measuring in-situ stress. The magnitudes of in-situ stress can be determined from drilled core samples by deformation rate analysis (DRA); in other words, rocks do have the property of in-situ stress memory. In general, the inelastic strain of rocks increases with an increase in applied stress difference. The Keiser effect observed in laboratory experiments is explained as the behavior of the inelastic strain of this well-known mode. However, this effect cannot be the mechanism of the in-situ stress memory because the effect does not potentially allow us to determine the magnitudes of previously applied stress. Here, I theoretically show that rocks exhibit another mode of inelastic strain under axial loading of compression—if locally concentrated stresses in rocks relax to some extent under in-situ stress at depth. The magnitudes of in-situ stress can be determined from the behavior of this mode of inelastic strain under axial loading. The results of DRA suggest that this hypothesis is actually valid and that it is not only valid for the DRA, but also for the other rock core-based methods used for measuring in-situ stress.
References
Brace, W. F., B. W. Paulding, and C. H. Scholz, Dilatancy in the fracture of crystalline rocks, J. Geophys. Res., 71, 3939–3953, 1966.
Carlson, S. and H. Wang, Microcrack porosity and in situ stress in Illinois Borehole UPH-3, J. Geophys. Res., 91, 10,421–10,428, 1986.
Enever, J. and L. Mckay, Note of the relationship between anelastic strain recovery and virgin rock stresses—a possible method of stress measurement, ISRM Symp. on Investigation of Stresses in Rock—Advance in Stress Measurement, Sydney, 37–40, 1976.
Goodman, R. E., Subaudible noise during compression of rocks, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 74, 487–490, 1963.
Hill, R., Elastic properties of rein forced solid: Some theoretical principles, J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 11, 357–372, 1963.
Kanagawa, T., M. Hayashi, and N. Nakasa, Estimation of spatial geostress components in rock samples using the Kaiser effect of acoustic emission, Proc. Jpn. Soc. Civil Eng., 285, 63–75, 1977 (in Japanese).
Koide, H., Y. Nishimatsu, S. Koizumi, K. Hoshino, T. Kanagawa, Y. Nakayama, A. Inoue, K. Yamamoto, and S. Kikuchi, Comparison among several methods for stress measurement in the Kanto-Tokai district, Japan, Proc. 18th Japan Symp. Rock Mech., 261–265, 1986 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Kurita, K. and N. Fujii, Stress memory of crystalline rocks in acoustic emission, Geophys. Res. Lett., 6, 9–12, 1979.
Kuwahara, Y., K. Yamamoto, and T. Hirasawa, An experimental and theoretical study of inelastic deformation of brittle rocks under cyclic uniaxial loading, Tohoku Geophys. J. (Sci. Rep. Tohoku Univ., Ser. 5), 33, 1–21, 1990.
Landau, L. and E. Lifshitz, Theory of Elasticity, New edition with supplements, 1989, translated in Japanese by Sato, T. and Y. Ishibashi, Tokyo Tosho Co., Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, pp 275, 1972.
Meglis, I. L., T. Engelder, and E. K. Graham, The effect of stress-relief on ambient microcrack porosity in core samples from the Kent Cliffs (New York) and Moodus (Connecticut) scientific research boreholes, Tectonophysics, 186, 163–173, 1991.
Montgomery, C. T. and N.-K. Ren, Differential strain curve analysis: Does it work?, Proc. Workshop on hydraulic fracturing stress measurement, Monterey, CA, 239–245, 1981.
Sato, N., Y. Yabe, K. Yamamoto, and H. Ito, In situ stresses near the Nojima Fault estimated by deformation rate analysis, Zisin 2, 56, 157–169, 2003.
Seto, M., D. K. Nag, and V. S. Vutukuri, In-situ rock stress measurement from rock cores using the acoustic estimation method and deformation rate analysis, Geotech. Geol. Eng., 17, 241–266, 1999.
Simmons, G., R.W. Siegfried II, and M. Faves, Differential strain analysis: A new method for examining cracks in rocks, J. Geophys. Res., 79, 4383–4385, 1974.
Sokolnikoff, I. S., Mathematical Theory of Elasticity, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 476, 1956.
Tamaki, K. and K. Yamamoto, Estimating in-situ stress field from basaltic rock core samples of Hole 794C, Yamato Basin, Japan Sea, Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, 127/128, 1047–1059, 1992.
Tamaki, K., K. Yamamoto, T. Furuta, and H. Yamamoto, An experiment of in-situ stress estimation on basaltic core samples from Hole 758A, Ninetyeast Ridge, Indian Ocean, Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, 121, 697–917, 1991.
Yamamoto, H., An experimental study on stress memory of rocks and its application to in situ stress estimation, Master thesis, Tohoku Univ., pp. 96, 1991.
Yamamoto, K., The rock property of in-situ stress memory: Discussions on its mechanism, in Proc. Int. W/S Rock Stress Measurement at Great Depth, edited by Matsuki, K. and K. Sugawara, 46–51, ISRM, Tokyo, 1995.
Yamamoto, K. and Y. Yabe, Stresses at sites close to the Nojima earthquake fault measured on boring core samples, Island Arc, 10, 266–281, 2001.
Yamamoto, K., Y. Kuwahara, and T. Hirasawa, Discrimination of previously applies stress by the deformation rate analysis: Application of the method to estimation of in-situ stress, Progr. Abstr. Seismol. Soc. Jpn., 1983, 2:104, 1983 (Abstract in Japanese).
Yamamoto, K., Y. Kuwahara, N. Kato, and T. Hirasawa, Deformation rate analysis: A new method for in situ stress estimation from inelastic deformation of rock samples under uni-axial compressions, Tohoku Geophys. J. (Sci. Rep. Tohoku Univ., Ser. 5), 33, 127–147, 1990.
Yamamoto, K., H. Yamamoto, N. Kato, and T. Hirasawa, Deformation rate analysis for in situ stress estimation, in AE/MS Activity in Geol. Struc. Mat. (Proc. of the Fifth Conference), edited by H. R. Hardy, Jr, 243–255, Trans Tech Pub, 1995.
Yamamoto, K., Y. Yabe, and H. Yamamoto, Relation of In-situ stress field to seismic activity as inferred from the stresses measured on core samples, in Rock Stress (Proc. Int. Symp. Rock Stress, Kumamoto/Japan/7–10 October, 1977), edited by Sugawara, K. and Y. Obara, 375–380, Balkema, Rotterdam, 1997.
Yamamoto, K., N. Sato, and Y. Yabe, Driving force of the intra-plate crust as inferred from stresses measured in the eastern part of Kitakami mountains, Northeastern Honshu, Japan, Zisin 2, 56, 511–527, 2004 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Yoshikawa, S. and K. Mogi, A new method for estimation of the crustal stress from cored rock samples: Laboratory study in the case of uniaxial compression, Tectonophysics, 74, 323–339, 1981.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Retired from Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 2004.
Rights and permissions
Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Yamamoto, K. A theory of rock core-based methods for in-situ stress measurement. Earth Planet Sp 61, 1143–1161 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352966
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352966