Staff Spotlight: Shelby Peterie
This Staff Spotlight features Research Geophysicist in Exploration Services Shelby Peterie and her work as part of the KGS team.
By Ally Pruente
Shelby Peterie loves big projects. In her 17 years at the Kansas Geological Survey, one of her most substantial undertakings has been collecting earthquake data to share with Kansas residents. And in a place where earthquakes aren’t nearly as common as a classic twister, a disruption in the earth is intimidating to say the least.
Peterie understands this intimidation more than most, as she manages the Seismometer Network. The network contains an interactive map as well as other resources that explain and assess earthquakes recorded in the state.
Peterie spends her time focusing on just how pertinent these earthquakes and other geohazards are to the environment and human safety. As of late 2014, south-central Kansas saw a significant increase in earthquakes, with more than 100 magnitude 2 quakes that year. This was the beginning of a major trend for the next several years.
“Kansas had no earthquake network when earthquakes first started occurring here,” Peterie said. “It was a big rush of, you know, how do we do it? What equipment do we use? What software do we use? How do we process the data, and grow the network and grow the team?”
Peterie digs through papers scattered across her desk and bulletin boards — “My office is just like geology,” she says. “It’s a lot of layers.” — until she finds a map of disposal wells in both Kansas and Oklahoma. These wells are primarily categorized in two ways. Class I wells are used to inject hazardous and non-hazardous wastewater into deep, isolated rock formations. Class II wells are used exclusively to inject fluids associated with oil and natural gas production. Peterie and her team noticed a correlation between Class II well disposal operations and earthquakes.
“So you can see here at the Oklahoma border, there was a really dense grouping of high-rate injection wells that were injecting into one of the sedimentary units that’s right above the granite basement,” Peterie said. “The granite basement is where the crustal stresses are highest, and that’s where earthquakes are occurring.”
Peterie and her team compared earthquake progression to deep fluid disposal and pore pressure change over time.
Map of injection wells on the Kansas and Oklahoma border.
“As production began in the Mississippian limestone play near the Kansas and Oklahoma border, they were not only producing hydrocarbons but also brine from that formation,” Peterie said. “2011 is when that production was first beginning, and disposal was first beginning. By 2017 we can see the pressures are really increasing.”
Maps showing changing pressure near the southern part of Kansas, close to the Oklahoma border.
Because earthquakes and other geohazards have implications for the environment and human safety, much of Peterie’s work involves communication with the public. “A lot of interacting with the public, especially on earthquakes, is really just reassuring them because when they feel something, that’s scary, especially in a state where it’s not like California, where it happens all the time,” Peterie said. “So just helping them know that we’re keeping an eye on it, we’re doing the research to understand it, and to just reassure them.” Now that the network is established, Peterie and two earthquake analysts catalog all the earthquakes in the area to keep the database timely. As a research geophysicist in KGS Exploration Services, Peterie participates in other research projects beyond earthquake monitoring. There is no telling what might come her way in a work week. “So I could even have a plan for what I was going to do that day, but then a magnitude 4 happened in Saline County that people are really wanting to know more about,” Peterie said. “Every day is different.” Her interest in geophysics sprouted from her love of math and planetary science. After finding herself on the geology path, Peterie received her master’s degree here at KU. Now, as leader of the earthquake network, even when an earthquake isn’t occurring she researches them.
Seismometer at a KGS seismic station.
Seismometer locations in Kansas.
Peterie advises those who want to do similar work to cultivate a sense of wonder. When you see something you can’t explain, she says, explore the possibilities.
“I feel like that’s one of my strong skill sets: recognizing that novelty and being curious,” Peterie said.
When she’s not traveling across the country or the state for work, Peterie spends time at home with her four kids and her foster dog.
“We live out in the country; we’ve got about 15 acres,” Peterie said. “My big dream is, I want to convert our pasture and do things like prairie restoration. I like to take on big projects. I want to plant milkweed, other natives, and lots of pollinator plants.”
At the end of the work week, Peterie enjoys the balance her job provides.
“I love being outside, and I love working outside,” she said. “And then you work outside long enough and are ready to be back in the office.”
Kansans can find real-time earthquake data on the KGS Seismometer Network that Peterie manages.