THIS WEEK
FRIDAY JUNE 9 @ 1P PDT
Mechanical behavior of lubricated faults during earthquake nucleation and propagation
Marie Violay, EPFL
Natural and human Induced Fluid Earthquakes (FIEs) have been observed and recorded for decades. These events can be responsible for significant human, economical and infrastructure damage. FIEs result from the interaction between fluid pressure perturbations, in-situ stresses, frictional and rupture processes at micro to macro scales, and the geometric complexity of the fault zone. Methods for risk assessment and forecasting (in terms of time, location and magnitude) of FIEs require a sound physical basis. However, much of the primary parameters controlling FIE dynamics cannot be measured by geophysical methods. Thus, to establish new general constitutive physical FIE laws, the temporal- and spatial-scale dependence of FIEs should first be properly investigated in the laboratory. here we studied the influence of viscous lubricant in the nucleation and propagation of spontaneous frictional ruptures. We adopted a multi-scale experimental approach. [more info ][register]
Have a great summer!