Koyna Deepbore Drilling Project

Reservoir-triggered Earthquakes have been occurring persistently in the Koyna-Warna region since the impoundment of the Shivajisagar Lake in 1962. A strong correlation between continued earthquake activity and the annual loading and unloading cycles of the Koyna and nearby Warna reservoir has been established. However, a model to comprehend the genesis of reservoir-triggered earthquakes is elusive, likely due to the lack of observations for near field. In order to understand this, the Borehole Geophysics Research Laboratory ( BGRL) was established by the Ministry of Earth Sciences ( MoES), Govt of India in October 2014 at Karad, Maharashtra. 

 

Several exploratory core drilling at 9 sites up to 1500m depth have been undertaken, subsequently, the deep bore drilling was initiated on 20th December 2016 to drill a pilot borehole to a depth of 3kms. BGRL served as the operational center for this phase of investigations, which comprises of multi-disciplinary studies on core samples, drilling of the pilot and deep boreholes to the depths of 3-5 km, downhole geophysical measurements and laboratory studies, setting up of a deep borehole observatory at hypocentral depth, and long- term measurements and monitoring.  I was involved in photo documenting and developing a film of this colossal drilling project.