Abundant geological, seismological and experimental evidence of the heterogeneous structure of natural faults motivates the theoretical and computational study of the mechanical behavior of heterogeneous frictional interfaces. Fault zones are composed of a mixture of materials with contrasting strength, which may affect the spatial variability of seismic coupling, the location of high-frequency...

[1] We investigate the behavior of simulated slow slip events using a rate and state friction model that is steady state velocity weakening at low slip speeds but velocity strengthening at high slip speeds. Our simulations are on a one-dimensional (line) fault, but we modify the elastic interactions to mimic the elongate geometry frequently observed in slow slip events. Simulations exhibit a nu...

In this study, we develop stochastic random-field slip models for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and conduct a rigorous sensitivity analysis of tsunami hazards with respect to the uncertainty of earthquake slip and fault geometry. Synthetic earthquake slip distributions generated from the modified Mai-Beroza method captured key features of inversion-based source representations of the mega-thrust e...