The MIC is a partnership between academia and a large number of oil-gas companies prevalently operating in the Canadian plays, promoting mutual strong interrelationships. Fundamental research is conducted by the MIC members to understand the complex dynamics of hydraulic fracturing and induced seismicity.

Prof. Eaton has presented his last work in a Kolloquium about passive seismic methods for hydraulic-fracture monitoring, with potential for resolving fracture networks, slow slip events and earthquake nucleation processes.

We hope to collaborate between IMGW and MIC, to develop a knowledge base for hydraulic operations in hydrocarbon extraction and to study geophysical effects in reservoirs. Some topics of mutual interest include induced seismicity, matched filtering detection, anisotropy and stress studies for inferring the stress-state of critically stressed faults. Results are useful for the FracRisk project (www.fracrisk.eu), whose main target is the minimization of the environmental footprint of shale gas exploration and exploitation. The University of Vienna is a partner in that project.