Micro-slips in an experimental granular shear band replicate the spatiotemporal characteristics of natural earthquakes

Abstract Memory effects in seismology—such as the occurrence of aftershock sequences—are implicitly assumed to be governed by time since main event. However, experiments are yet identify if memory structural or time-dependent mechanisms. Here, we use laser interferometry examine fluctuations deformation which naturally emerge along an experimental shear fault within a compressed frictional granular medium. We find that occurs succession localized micro-slips distributed fault. The associated distributions released seismic moments, well strain and correlations between successive events, follow exactly empirical laws natural earthquakes. methodology initially developed seismology reveal at laboratory scale underlying causal structure this behavior triggering kernel. propose strain, not time, controls our analog.