Record #204871 - GSI Repository

STRAIN

fault STRength breAkdown and Implications for earthquake Nucleation

Coordinator	Durham University
Grant period	2017-09-14 - 2019-09-13
Funding body	European Union
Call number	H2020-MSCA-IF-2016
Grant number	748400
Identifier	G:(EU-Grant)748400

Note: Our ability to limit the societal and economic impact of the earthquakes is strongly tied to our understanding of the physics lying behind the earthquake phenomenology. Most earthquakes are generated along pre-existing faults that suddenly fail after prolonged periods of tectonic stressing. Indeed, an earthquake is generated by the imbalance between the elastic energy provided by the rocks surrounding the fault and the strength drop of the fault itself, which is degraded by progressive slip. A large number of experimental and geophysical data well characterize the first-order resistance of the rocks either before (“static” strength) or after the initiation of seismic slip (“dynamic” strength). However, there is a fundamental lack of understanding about how exactly the fault strength decrease slip (STRAIN weakening) and about the real elasticity of the rock masses around the fault, i.e. the “spring” that triggers the earthquakes. We propose the first systematic study of the changes in rock strength with progressive strain using two world-class deformation apparatuses hosted at Durham University, integrating a wide range of microstructural observations and lab seismology techniques to have insights into the microphysics of deformation. We also propose to acquire an unprecedented dataset on the elasticity of fault rocks at in situ conditions, which will be combined with shear experiments to produce empirically calibrated models of fault zone that may shed new light on the process of earthquake nucleation and of potential seismic precursors.

Recent Publications

There are no publications

Record created 2017-06-14, last modified 2023-02-12

Similar records

Add to personal basket
Export as Author List with IDs BibTeX (UTF-8), EndNote XML, EndNote Text, RIS, MARC, Print MARC, MARCXML, DC,
Request correction
Submit fulltext

GSI Homepage \| GSI Library \| English Deutsch \| guest :: login GSI Repository
Search	Submit	Personalize Your alerts Your baskets Your searches	Help