Abstract Recent field studies provide evidence of fault slip-rate variability over time periods 10–100 k.y., yet researchers do not know how processes internal to the system (e.g., reorganization) impact records slip rates. In this study, we directly observed fault-system evolution and measured histories within a scaled physical experiment dextral strike-slip 15° restraining bend representative...

Abstract We discuss in this paper the possibility of detecting slow slip events (such as silent earthquakes, or earthquake nucleation phases) in the vicinity of geological faults, and the possible localization of those faults from GPS observations. A nonlinear eigenvalue problem (of Steklov type), modeling the slow evolution of the slip is stated as a direct problem. The recovery of an active f...

Slip rupture processes on velocity-weakening faults have been found in simulations to occur by two basic modes, the expanding crack and self-healing modes. In the expanding crack mode, as the rupture zone on a fault keeps expanding, slip continues growing everywhere within the rupture. In the self-healing mode, rupture occurs as a slip pulse propagating along the fault, with cessation of slip b...

Understanding the response of faults to injection high-pressure fluids is important for several subsurface applications, example, geologic carbon sequestration or energy storage. Lab-based experiments suggest that fluid can activate fault slip and this lead increased transmission along low-permeability faults. Here we present in situ observations from a cross-borehole fluid-injection experiment...

[1] The one-dimensional model of Rudnicki and Chen [1988] for a slip-weakening dilating fault is extended to include shear heating. Because inertia is not included, instability (a seismic event) corresponds to an unbounded slip rate. Shear heating tends to increase pore pressure and decrease the effective compressive stress and the resistance to slip and consequently tends to promote instabilit...

We perform a detailed parameter-space study on properties of yielding zones generated by 2-D in-plane dynamic ruptures on a planar fault with different friction laws and parameters, different initial stress conditions, different rock cohesion values, and different contrasts of elasticity and mass density across the fault. The focus is on cases corresponding to large strike-slip faults having hi...

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake (Mw 9.0) produced a very large slip on the shallow part of a megathrust fault that resulted in destructive tsunamis. Although multiple causes of such large slip at shallow depths are to be expected, the frictional property of sediments around the fault, particularly at coseismic slip velocities, may significantly contribute to large slip along such faults. We have thu...

Low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) are small repeating earthquakes that occur in conjunction with deep slow slip. Like typical earthquakes, LFEs are thought to represent shear slip on crustal faults, but when compared to earthquakes of the same magnitude, LFEs are depleted in high-frequency content and have lower corner frequencies, implying longer duration. Here we exploit this difference to est...

S U M M A R Y In general, seismic slip along faults reduces the average shear stress within earthquake source regions, but stress drops of specific earthquakes are observed to vary widely in size. To advance our understanding of variations in stress drop, we analysed source parameters of smallmagnitude events in the greater San Gorgonio area, southern California. In San Gorgonio, the regional t...