Long-period long-duration (LPLD) seismic events that have been observed during hydraulic stimulation of shalegas and tight-gas reservoirs appear to represent slow shear slip on relatively large faults. Within the limitations of the recording geometry, we determine the areas in the reservoirs where the events are located in two case studies in the Barnett shale. In one data set, LPLD events appe...

Fault creep, depending on its rate and spatial extent, is thought to reduce earthquake hazard by releasing tectonic strain aseismically. We use Bayesian inversion and a newly expanded GPS data set to infer the deep slip rates below assigned locking depths on the San Andreas, Maacama, and Bartlett Springs Faults of Northern California and, for the latter two, the spatially variable interseismic ...

Geodetic studies have produced different interpretations of the relative vertical thickening versus escape tectonics occurring within the Los Angeles basin based on calculated horizontal strain rates ranging from 56 10 /yr contraction at N36 E to 85 10 /yr north–south contraction and 60 10 /yr east–west extension. Three-dimensional forward mechanical models of faults in the Los Angeles basin ar...

Recent observations suggesting the influence of creep on earthquakes nucleation and arrest are strong incentives to investigate the physical mechanisms controlling how active faults slip. We focus here on deriving generic characteristics of shallow creep along the Haiyuan fault, a major strike-slip fault in China, by investigating the relationship between fault slip and geometry. We use optical...

Earthquake faults occur in networks that have dynamical modes not displayed by single isolated faults. Using simulations of the network of strike-slip faults in southern California, we find that the physics depends critically on both the interactions among the faults, which are determined by the geometry of the fault network, as well as on the stress dissipation properties of the nonlinear fric...

We estimate the critical slip-weakening distance on earthquake faults by using a new approach, which is independent of the estimate of fracture energy or radiated seismic energy. The approach is to find a physically based relation between the breakdown time of shear stress Tb, the time of peak slip-velocity Tpv, and the slip-weakening distance Dc, from the time histories of shear stress, slip, ...

Faults in complex tectonic environments interact in various ways, including triggered rupture of one fault by another, that may increase seismic hazard in the surrounding region. We model static and dynamic fault interactions between the strike-slip and thrust fault systems in southern California. We find that rupture of the Sierra Madre-Cucamonga thrust fault system is unlikely to trigger rupt...

We study strain localization as an enhanced velocity weakening mechanism on earthquake faults. Fault friction is modeled using Shear Transformation Zone (STZ) Theory, a microscopic physical model for non-affine rearrangements in granular fault gouge. STZ Theory is implemented in spring slider and dynamic rupture models of faults. We compare dynamic shear localization to deformation that is unif...

We provide an extended Peierls–Nabarro (P–N) formulation with a sinusoidal series representation of generalized stacking fault energy (GSFE) to establish flow stress in a Ni2FeGa shape memory alloy. The resultant martensite structure in Ni2FeGa is L10 tetragonal. The atomistic simulations allowed determination of the GSFE landscapes for the (111) slip plane and 2 1⁄2 101 ; 2 1⁄2 110 ; 6 1⁄2 211...