This research is assessing the distribution and potential of ultramafic rocks in British Columbia to capture and store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and safely stabilize it long-term as carbonate minerals. A series of related research projects are being led by the University of British Columbia (UBC) – Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining (BRIMM) and Mineral Deposit Research Unit (MDRU).

This project installs and monitors a closely spaced network of seismographs in the Kiskatinaw area of British Columbia’s Northeast Region to generate real-time, public data.

The project is one of a series of for four research projects launched in December 2019 to further investigate how and why, in certain circumstances, earthquakes can be caused by hydraulic fracturing and wastewater disposal during natural gas development.

View Honn Kao Presentation at CAPP Induced Seismicity Meeting   This project was undertaken to conduct a comprehensive investigation of injection-induced seismicity in the northeast area of British Columbia. Utilizing existing seismic monitoring stations and incorporating a new monitoring array, the project provides new findings on how seismicity is influenced by injection type, site-specific geomechanical […]

This project examined the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and induced seismicity (earthquakes caused by human activity) in the Montney Play of British Columbia’s Northeast Region. Researchers used multivariate statistical methods, including machine learning techniques, to combine and analyze public data from natural gas completion activities, earthquake catalogue data and geological information to better understand the […]

This project combines multiple datasets in a machine learning setting, together with laboratory experiments and numerical simulations, to model the relationship between natural gas operations, geology and seismic activity in the Montney Play in the Northeast Region of British Columbia.

This project identified and characterized disposal zones for waste fluids recovered during natural gas operations by combining geological information, production and disposal data from natural gas operations in the Montney Play region in British Columbia’s Northeast Region.

This pre-feasibility study explored the opportunities and constraints of repurposing the Clarke Lake Field natural gas field near Fort Nelson in northeastern British Columbia to host a geothermal pilot plant and identified potential customers for power and heat.

With a focus on the populated Fort St. John-Dawson Creek area, where hydraulic fracturing and fluid injection by the petroleum industry is a concern for public safety, this project will provide new information on how and where seismic waves travelling through soils and sediments below the surface may be amplified, generating necessary information for regulators and industry to reduce risk by improving protocols.

This project collected and analyzed samples from 98 sites in the Penticton Map Sheet (NTS 082E) to increase regional geochemical coverage in British Columbia’s Southeast Region. The project demonstrated that a modified collection strategy may resolve deficiencies in regional geochemical sampling while still providing valuable geochemical information from a drainage basin to help locate upstream […]

This project developed an economical and portable gas measurement system to reliably and efficiently detect evidence of geological faults and sulphide mineralization buried beneath glacial sediment deposits in the central interior of British Columbia.