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1.
Slip-softening instability on a vertical strike-slip fault with asperities has been analysed. The fault strength is uniform in depth, but the strength is nonuniform in the strike direction, i.e., there are asperities on the fault. These asperities and other segments of the fault have the same type of constitutive law but different peak stresses. The material surrounding the fault is represented by elastic plates, of which the top and bottom surfaces are stress-free.We use a finite element method to study the evolution of theoretical displacement, stress and strain field with a growing displacement applied at the remote plate ends. The slip and frictional stress are obtained as part of the solution. We have compared the difference of theoretical displacement, strain field and the distribution of frictional stress on the fault between unstable and stable slip. In addition, we have studied the effect of size and strength of asperities on instability, and the softening behaviour of asperities before instability.We find that (1) the failure of the fault zone may be due to either dynamic instability or rapid quasistable slip. A general characteristic of unstable mode is that slippage, on some parts of asperities increases indefinitely for a small finite increase in remote imposed displacement until, immediately before the unstable slip; (2) the size and peak strength of asperities have a large effect on instability. Reducing the size and peak strength of asperities tends to replace inertially unstable deformation with stable deformation; (3) the location with maximum acceleration during unstable slip, as the plausible nucleating seismic source, is in asperities; (4) the shapes of the changes in theoretical stress and strain at a given location, caused by the nonlinear constitutive property of the fault, are all similar whether instability, happens or not. This fact suggests that the changes of peak type or bend type in crustal deformation are not required for earthquake instability. 相似文献
2.
力学上,地震可以看作在应力场作用下由于断层带介质的突然损伤或软化导致的断层带失稳事件.本文基于这个地震动力学模型,利用一种可以模拟断层大位错的有限元方法,研究了2011年MW9.0东日本大地震(Tohoku-Oki)的动力学破裂过程.比较了无障碍体和具有不同刚度障碍体的断层带模型产生的断层位移、位错和应力降.主要结果表明,障碍体的存在并不明显地改变障碍体区域的初始构造应力场.对有障碍体情形,准静态结果显示断层上盘最大逆冲位移和最大剪切位错分别为51m和58m,均发生在海底表面海沟处,与无障碍体的结果(最大剪切位错约55m)相比差别不大;下盘最大倾向位移(-10m)并不与上盘最大值出现在同一位置,而是在障碍体处.障碍体处剪应力降(约11 MPa)大于周围非障碍体区域.障碍体处正应力降的最大值约为3 MPa.模拟结果似乎不支持海山是导致本次地震异乎寻常大位错的原因,而倾向于断层带剪切刚度在地震过程中极度损伤或软化. 相似文献
3.
Boi-Yee Liao Tian-Wei Sheu Yeong-Tien Yeh Huey-Chu Huang Lien-Shiang Yang 《Pure and Applied Geophysics》2013,170(3):391-407
This study investigates the kinematics of the rupture process of the M L 7.3 Chi–Chi, Taiwan, earthquake on September 21, 1999. By applying the proposed hybrid homomorphic deconvolution method to deconvolve teleseismic broadband P-wave displacement recordings of the earthquake, this study derives the apparent source time functions (ASTFs) at ten stations located around the epicenter. To further characterize the fault, the kinematic history of the rupture was inverted from ASTFs using a genetic algorithm, coupled with nonlinear iterative technique. The calculated ASFTs reveal that the total rupture event lasted for approximately 27 s. Static slip distribution images indicate that most slip occurred at shallower portions of the fault plane, especially 20–55 km north of the epicenter. The maximum slip reached 20 m at 45 km north of the epicenter, and the average slip throughout the observed rupture area was approximately 2 m. Large asperities on the fault appeared at 25–35 km and 40–50 km north of the hypocenter, and coincided with relatively high rupture velocity. This suggests that the earthquake’s energy may have been released quickly. The rupture velocity decreased upon encountering an asperity, and increased again after passing the asperity. This implies that the rupture required more time to overcome the resistances of the asperities. The maximum rupture velocity was 3.8 km/s, while the average rupture velocity was approximately 2.2 km/s. The rise time distribution suggests that larger slip amplitudes generally correspond to shorter rise times on the subfaults. 相似文献
4.
本文利用具有非均匀剪切应力分布的圆盘状裂缝问题的解,定量计算了障碍体和凹凸体对地震矩的影响.我们发现,除非障碍体的尺寸很小或很接近于整个断层的尺寸,含有障碍体的断层的地震矩,大致为具有均匀应力降的等面积断层的地震矩的40%.由此可以推知,在障碍体的这种尺寸范围内,视应力降大致也是△Af=SA-f的40%.这里SA是远场应力,f是残余摩擦应力.另外,已存在滑动带对于凹凸体破坏的地震矩有明显的放大作用,这种作用在凹凸体尺寸较小时特别显著.例如,当凹凸体半径是整个断层半径的2/10时,凹凸体上的矩被放大7倍多;当其半径为整个断层半径的1/10时,凹凸体的矩将被放大约30倍. 文中还比较了三维效应和二维效应的差异.我们发现,Mx0/M0c在三维情形对障碍体尺寸的变化并不敏感,这是与二维情形很不相同的.这里,Mx0是具有障碍体的断层破裂所产生的地震矩,M0c是相应的均匀断层破裂的矩.所以,二维分析不适用于具有障碍体的三维断层.然而,在分析已存在滑动带对凹凸体破裂的矩的影响时,平面应变结果与三维结果差异并不很大. 相似文献
5.
本文利用2015年尼泊尔MW7.9地震断层面滑动位移分布的运动学反演结果,通过傅里叶变换法得到了主断层面上的两分量应力状态,并研究了余震的空间分布和断层面上应力状态之间的关系.发现滑动位移分布与应力状态分布都相对较为集中,大约70%的余震分布在应力变化为正的区域,而其余发生在应力降区域的余震,又大多发生在应力变化梯度较大的地区.为了得到一个更符合实际的滑动模型来解释余震的触发机制,我们计算了波数域中滑动位移和应力状态的傅里叶谱,发现此次地震的滑动位移和应力状态近似满足k-3和k-2衰减.我们利用简化的圆盘模型说明了非均匀应力变化下的衰减过程,计算了圆盘模型的有效半径re约等于0.7倍的圆盘半径.这就说明圆盘模型中应力增加的部分应该占整个圆盘破裂面积的51%.在本次尼泊尔MW7.9地震实例中,断层面上应力状态为负的区域比滑动位移为正的区域有了明显地缩小.事实表明,余震可以发生在有滑动位移的区域,非均匀应力降模型比均匀应力降模型更加接近真实的震源破裂过程. 相似文献
6.
7.
High-frequency rupture process of the Oct 23, 2011 Van-Merkez earthquake is imaged by back-projection method using high-quality teleseismic P wave data from the US Array, and prestack Kirchhoff migration using P wave data from a subarray of global seismic networks. The rupture model with two asperities is confirmed by previous two methods. In low-frequency imaging, a large asperity derived from the migration method corresponds to the second one from the high-frequency P waves. The consistency of the locations of asperities from datasets with different frequency bands indicates that there is possible insignificance of the frequency-dependent feature for the earthquake. The resultant images illustrate the spatial and temporal evolution of the rupture, which mainly propagated WSW over a length of 33 km during the first 18 s, accompanying with bursts of two asperities at 3 and 11–13 s. The rupture direction is confirmed by the S wave corner frequency variations of strong ground accelerations. The rupture fronts are mainly located at the updip of the causative fault. Based on polarities of the P waveforms and focal mechanisms of the mainshock and aftershocks, the failure of these two asperities is determined to have occurred on a reverse fault with a dip angle of 47°. Hence, the rupture pattern of the 2011 Van-Merkez earthquake was dominated by a unilateral rupture toward the west-southwest direction. 相似文献
8.
JiuXun Yin HuaJian Yao HongFeng Yang Jing Liu WeiZe Qin HaiJiang Zhang 《中国科学:地球科学(英文版)》2017,60(4):796-808
On 25 April 2015, an M w 7.8 earthquake occurred on the Main Himalaya Thrust fault with a dip angle of ~ 7° about 77 km northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal. This Nepal Gorkha event is the largest one on the Himalayan thrust belt since 1950. Here we use the compressive sensing method in the frequency domain to track the seismic radiation and rupture process of this event using teleseismic P waves recorded by array stations in North America. We also compute the distribution of static shear stress changes on the fault plane from a coseismic slip model. Our results indicate a dominant east-southeastward unilateral rupture process from the epicenter with an average rupture speed of ~3 km s?1. Coseismic radiation of this earthquake shows clear frequency-dependent features. The lower frequency (0.05–0.3 Hz) radiation mainly originates from large coseismic slip regions with negative coseismic shear stress changes. In comparison, higher frequency (0.3–0.6 Hz) radiation appears to be from the down-dip part around the margin of large slip areas, which has been loaded and presents positive coseismic shear stress changes. We propose an asperity model to interpret this Nepal earthquake sequence and compare the frequency-dependent coseismic radiation with that in subduction zones. Such frequency-dependent radiation indicates the depth-varying frictional properties on the plate interface of the Nepal section in the main Himalaya thrust system, similar to previous findings in oceanic subduction zones. Our findings provide further evidence of the spatial correlation between changes of static stress status on the fault plane and the observed frequency-dependent coseismic radiation during large earthquakes. Our results show that the frequency-dependent coseismic radiation is not only found for megathrust earthquakes in the oceanic subduction environment, but also holds true for thrust events in the continental collision zone. 相似文献
9.
10.
The Cocos plate subducts beneath North America at the Mexico trench. The northernmost segment of this trench, between the Orozco and Rivera fracture zones, has ruptured in a sequence of five large earthquakes from 1973 to 1985; the Jan. 30, 1973 Colima event (M
s
7.5) at the northern end of the segment near Rivera fracture zone; the Mar. 14, 1979 Petatlan event (M
s
7.6) at the southern end of the segment on the Orozco fracture zone; the Oct. 25, 1981 Playa Azul event (M
s
7.3) in the middle of the Michoacan gap; the Sept. 19, 1985 Michoacan mainshock (M
s
8.1); and the Sept. 21, 1985 Michoacan aftershock (M
s
7.6) that reruptured part of the Petatlan zone. Body wave inversion for the rupture process of these earthquakes finds the best: earthquake depth; focal mechanism; overall source time function; and seismic moment, for each earthquake. In addition, we have determined spatial concentrations of seismic moment release for the Colima earthquake, and the Michoacan mainshock and aftershock. These spatial concentrations of slip are interpreted as asperities; and the resultant asperity distribution for Mexico is compared to other subduction zones. The body wave inversion technique also determines theMoment Tensor Rate Functions; but there is no evidence for statistically significant changes in the moment tensor during rupture for any of the five earthquakes. An appendix describes theMoment Tensor Rate Functions methodology in detail.The systematic bias between global and regional determinations of epicentral locations in Mexico must be resolved to enable plotting of asperities with aftershocks and geographic features. We have spatially shifted all of our results to regional determinations of epicenters. The best point source depths for the five earthquakes are all above 30 km, consistent with the idea that the down-dip edge of the seismogenic plate interface in Mexico is shallow compared to other subduction zones. Consideration of uncertainties in the focal mechanisms allows us to state that all five earthquakes occurred on fault planes with the same strike (N65°W to N70°W) and dip (15±3°), except for the smaller Playa Azul event at the down-dip edge which has a steeper dip angle of 20 to 25°. However, the Petatlan earthquake does prefer a fault plane that is rotated to a more east-west orientation—one explanation may be that this earthquake is located near the crest of the subducting Orozco fracture zone. The slip vectors of all five earthquakes are similar and generally consistent with the NUVEL-predicted Cocos-North America convergence direction of N33°E for this segment. The most important deviation is the more northerly slip direction for the Petatlan earthquake. Also, the slip vectors from the Harvard CMT solutions for large and small events in this segment prefer an overall convergence direction of about N20°E to N25°E.All five earthquakes share a common feature in the rupture process: each earthquake has a small initial precursory arrival followed by a large pulse of moment release with a distinct onset. The delay time varies from 4 s for the Playa Azul event to 8 s for the Colima event. While there is some evidence of spatial concentration of moment release for each event, our overall asperity distribution for the northern Mexico segment consists of one clear asperity, in the epicentral region of the 1973 Colima earthquake, and then a scattering of diffuse and overlapping regions of high moment release for the remainder of the segment. This character is directly displayed in the overlapping of rupture zones between the 1979 Petatlan event and the 1985 Michoacan aftershock. This character of the asperity distribution is in contrast to the widely spaced distinct asperities in the northern Japan-Kuriles Islands subduction zone, but is somewhat similar to the asperity distributions found in the central Peru and Santa Cruz Islands subduction zones. Subduction of the Orozco fracture zone may strongly affect the seismogenic character as the overlapping rupture zones are located on the crest of the subducted fracture zone. There is also a distinct change in the physiography of the upper plate that coincides with the subducting fracture zone, and the Guerrero seismic gap to the south of the Petatlan earthquake is in the wake of the Orozco fracture zone. At the northern end, the Rivera fracture zone in the subducting plate and the Colima graben in the upper plate coincide with the northernmost extent of the Colima rupture zone. 相似文献
11.
A simplified multiple source model was constructed for the 1975 HawaiiM
s=7.2 earthquake by matching synthetic signals with three component accelerograms at two stations located approximately 45 km from the epicenter. Six major subevents were identified and located approximately. The signals of these are larger by factors of 1.4 to 3.2 than that of theM
L=5.9 foreshock which occurred 70 minutes before the main rupture and also triggered the SAM-1 recorders at the two stations. Dividing the rupture length (40 km) by the duration of strong ground shaking ( 50 sec) an, average rupture velocity of 0.8 km/sec (about 25% of S-velocity) is obtained. Thus it is likely that the rupture stopped between subevents. The approximate epicenters of the 6 major subevents, and of the foreshock, support the hypothesis that they were located in high stress asperities which rupture during the main shock, except for the last events which is interpreted as a stopping phase generated at a barrier. These asperities have been previously defined on the basis of differences in the precursor pattern before the mainshock. Thus, it appears that both the details of the precursors and of the main rupture depended critically on the heterogeneous tress distribution in the source volume. This suggests that main rupture initiation points and locations of high rupture accelerations may be identified before the mainshock occurs, based on precursor anomaly patterns. A satisfactory match of synthetic signals with the observations could be obtained only if the aximuth of the fault plane of subevents was rotated from N60°E to N90°E and back to N30°E. These orientations are approximately parallel to the nearest Kilauea rift segments. Hence the slip directions and greatest principal stresses were oriented perpendicular to the rifts everywhere. From this analysis and other work, it is concluded that this fault surface consisted of three types of segments with different strength: hard asperities (radius 5 km), soft but brittle segments between the asperities (radius 5 km), and a viscous half (10×40 km) which slipped during the mainshock, but where microearthquakes and aftershocks are not common. 相似文献
12.
2014年3月10日13时18分(北京时间)美国加利福尼亚州西北岸发生Mw6.9级地震,震中位于戈尔达板块内部.本文利用国际地震学研究联合会(IRIS)地震数据中心提供的远场体波数据,通过波形反演的方法来研究此次地震的震源破裂过程,并分析未造成重大人员伤亡及诱发海啸的原因,为该地区地球动力学的研究提供依据.选取19个方位角覆盖均匀的远场P波垂向波形记录和13个近场P波初动符号进行约束,基于剪切位错点源模型确定此次地震的震源机制解.结合地质构造背景资料,确定断层破裂面的走向.在考虑海水层多次反射效应的影响下,采用18个远场P波垂向波形数据和21个远场SH波切向波形数据,利用有限断层模型,将断层面剖分为17×9块子断层单元来模拟破裂面上滑动的时空分布,通过波形反演的方法获得此次地震的震源破裂过程.利用海水层地壳模型,剪切位错点源模型的反演结果为:走向323°,倾角86.1°,滑动角-180°,震源深度为10.6km.有限断层模型的反演结果表明,此次地震的破裂过程相对简单,主要滑动量集中于震源上方35km×9km的区域内,破裂时间持续19s左右,平均破裂传播速度约为2.7km·s-1,较大滑动量均沿着走向分布,最大滑动量为249cm.此次地震为发生在戈尔达板块内部的一次Mw6.9级的陡倾角走滑型地震.此次地震为单纯的走滑型地震,断层面接近竖直方向,且发生在洋壳底部,因此破坏力不大,不会对沿岸城市造成重大损失.陡倾角断层在走滑错动的过程中不会使海底地形发生大幅度变化,不会引起大面积水体的突然升降,因此不会诱发大规模海啸. 相似文献
13.
Intermediate-term observations preceding earthquakes of magnitude 5.7 or greater in California from 1975 through 1986 suggest that: (1) The sudden appearance of earthquakes in a previously inactive area indicates an increased likelihood of a significant earthquake in that area for a period from days to years; (2) these larger earthquakes tend to occur towards the ends of creeping fault segments; (3) one large earthquake in a region increases the likelihood of a subsequent significant event in the adjacent area; and (4) marginal evidence for the occurrence of a regional deformation event suggests that such events increase the probability of earthquake occurrence throughout the entire area. A common element in many of these observed patterns appears to be the transmission and amplification of tectonic stress changes by the mechanism of fault creep, and suggests that surface fault creep is a sensitive indicator of changes in stress. The preceding critieria are used to construct a preliminary forecast of the likely locations of significant earthquakes over the next decade. 相似文献
14.
In the Solomon Islands and New Britain subduction zones, the largest earthquakes commonly occur as pairs with small separation in time, space and magnitude. This doublet behavior has been attributed to a pattern of fault plane heterogeneity consisting of closely spaced asperities such that the failure of one asperity triggers slip in adjacent asperities. We analyzed body waves of the January 31, 1974,M
w
=7.3, February 1, 1974,M
w
=7.4, July 20, 1975 (1437)M
w
=7.6 and July 20, 1975 (1945),M
w
=7.3 doublet events using an iterative, multiple station inversion technique to determine the spatio-temporal distribution of seismic moment release associated with these events. Although the 1974 doublet has smaller body wave moments than the 1975 events, their source histories are more complicated, lasting over 40 seconds and consisting of several subevents located near the epicentral regions. The second 1975 event is well modeled by a simple point source initiating at a depth of 15 km and rupturing an approximate 20 km region about the epicenter. The source history of the first 1975 event reveals a westerly propagating rupture, extending about 50 km from its hypocenter at a depth of 25 km. The asperities of the 1975 events are of comparable size and do not overlap one another, consistent with the asperity triggering hypothesis. The relatively large source areas and small seismic moments of the 1974 doublet events indicate failure of weaker portions of the fault plane in their epicentral regions. Variations in the roughness of the bathymetry of the subducting plate, accompanying subduction of the Woodlark Rise, may be responsible for changes in the mechanical properties of the plate interface.To understand how variations in fault plane coupling and strength affect the interplate seismicity pattern, we relocated 85 underthrusting earthquakes in the northern Solomon Islands Are since 1964. Relatively few smaller magnitude underthrusting events overlap the Solomon Islands doublet asperity regions, where fault coupling and strength are inferred to be the greatest. However, these asperity regions have been the sites of several previous earthquakes withM
s
7.0. The source regions of the 1974 doublet events, which we infer to be mechanically weak, contain many smaller magnitude events but have not generated any otherM
s
7.0 earthquakes in the historic past. The central portion of the northern Solomon Islands Arc between the two largest doublet events in 1971 (studied in detail bySchwartz
et al., 1989a) and 1975 contains the greatest number of smaller magnitude underthrusting earthquakes. The location of this small region sandwiched between two strongly coupled portions of the plate interface suggest that it may be the site of the next large northern Solomon Islands earthquake. However, this region has experienced no known earthquakes withM
s
7.0 and may represent a relatively aseismic portion of the subduction zone. 相似文献
15.
We developed a recipe for predicting strong ground motions based on a characterization of the source model for future crustal earthquakes. From recent developments of waveform inversion of strong motion data used to estimate the rupture process, we have inferred that strong ground motion is primarily related to the slip heterogeneity inside the source rather than average slip in the entire rupture area. Asperities are characterized as regions that have large slip relative to the average slip on the rupture area. The asperity areas, as well as the total rupture area, scale with seismic moment. We determined that the areas of strong motion generation approximately coincide with the asperity areas. Based on the scaling relationships, the deductive source model for the prediction of strong ground motions is characterized by three kinds of parameters: outer, inner, and extra fault parameters. The outer fault parameters are defined as entire rupture area and total seismic moment. The inner fault parameters are defined as slip heterogeneity inside the source, area of asperities, and stress drop on each asperity based on the multiple-asperity model. The pattern of rupture nucleation and termination are the extra fault parameters that are related to geomorphology of active faults. We have examined the validity of the earthquake sources constructed by our recipe by comparing simulated and observed ground motions from recent inland crustal earthquakes, such as the 1995 Kobe and 2005 Fukuoka earthquakes. 相似文献
16.
基于InSAR技术,利用欧空局升降轨Sentinel-1A/IW宽幅数据,获取了2017年8月8日四川九寨沟7.0级地震InSAR同震形变场,并以升降轨InSAR观测结果为约束,反演了断层滑动分布,基于三种不同接收断层计算了同震库仑应力变化.结果表明,同震形变场发生在塔藏断裂、岷江断裂和虎牙断裂交汇的三角地带,升降轨干涉位移均显示本次地震的形变场影响范围约为50 km×50 km,形变场长轴方向为NW向,升降轨观测的形变量相反,反映断层运动性质以走滑运动为主,升降轨数据观测得到的最大LOS （Line of Sight,视线向）形变量分别为~22 cm和~14 cm.非对称形变场反映出断层两侧的运动差异.反演结果显示,最大滑动量约为1 m,平均滑动角为-9°,矩震级为MW6.5,地震破裂主要集中在地下1~15 km深度范围内,但整体而言本次地震破裂较为充分,基本将该区域1973年及1976年4次 > MW6.0地震的破裂空区完全破裂.考虑到塔藏断裂和虎牙断裂的运动性质,可初步判定发震断层为虎牙断裂北侧延伸分支.基于三种不同接收断层模型的同震库仑应力变化计算结果反映出该区域以应力释放为主,进一步触发较大走滑型余震的可能性不大. 相似文献
17.
18.
Kelin Wang 《Pure and Applied Geophysics》1995,145(3-4):537-559
Because of the viscoelastic behaviour of the earth, accumulation of elastic strain energy by tectonic loading and release of such energy by earthquake fault slips at subduction zones may take place on different spatial scales. If the lithospheric plate is acted upon by distant tectonic forces, strain accumulation must occur in a broad region. However, an earthquake releases strain only in a region comparable to the size of the rupture area. A two-dimensional finite-element model of a subduction zone with viscoelastic rheology has been used to investigate the coupling of tectonic loading and earthquake fault slips. A fault lock-and-unlock technique is employed so that the amount of fault slip in an earthquake is not prescribed, but determined by the accumulated stress. The amount of earthquake fault slip as a fraction of the total relative plate motion depends on the relative sizes of the earthquake rupture area and the region of tectonic strain accumulation, as well as the rheology of the rock material. The larger the region of strain accumulation is compared to the earthquake rupture, the smaller is the earthquake fault slip. The reason for the limited earthquake fault slip is that the elastic shear stress in the asthenosphere induced by the earthquake resists the elastic rebound of the overlying plate. Since rapid permanent plate shortening is not observed at subduction zones, there must be either strain release over a large region or strain accumulation over a small region over earthquake cycles. The former can be achieved only by significant aseismic fault slip between large subduction earthquakes. The most likely mechanism for the latter is the accumulation of elastic strain around isolated locked asperities of the fault, which requires significant aseismic fault slip between asperities. 相似文献
19.
We study the ground motion simulations based on three finite-source models for the 2007 Mw6.6 Niigata Chuetsu-oki, Japan, earthquake in order to discuss the performance of the input ground motion estimations for the near-field seismic hazard analysis. The three models include a kinematic source inverted from the regional accelerations, a dynamic source on a planar fault with three asperities inferred from the very-near-field ground motion particle motions, and another dynamic source model with conjugate fault segments. The ground motions are calculated for an available 3D geological model using a finite-difference method. For the comparison, we apply a goodness-of-fit score to the ground motion parameters at different stations, including the nearest one that is almost directly above the ruptured fault segments. The dynamic rupture models show good performance. We find that seismologically inferred earthquake asperities on a single fault plane can be expressed with two conjugate segments. The rupture transfer from one segment to another can generate a significant radiation; this could be interpreted as an asperity projected onto a single fault plane. This example illustrates the importance of the fault geometry that has to be taken into account when estimating the very-near-field ground motion. 相似文献
20.
Shmuel M. Rubinstein Itay Barel Ze’ev Reches Oleg M. Braun Michael Urbakh Jay Fineberg 《Pure and Applied Geophysics》2011,168(12):2151-2166
Faults are intrinsically heterogeneous with common occurrences of jogs, edges and steps. We therefore explore experimentally
and theoretically how fault edges may affect earthquake and slip dynamics. In the presented experiments and accompanying theoretical
model, shear loads are applied to the edge of one of two flat blocks in frictional contact that form a fault analog. We show
that slip occurs via a sequence of rapid rupture events that initiate from the loading edge and are arrested after propagating
a finite distance. Each successive event extends the slip size, transfers the applied shear across the block, and causes progressively
larger changes of the contact area along the contact surface. Resulting from this sequence of events, a hard asperity is dynamically
formed near the loaded edge. The contact area beyond this asperity is largely reduced. These sequences of rapid events culminate
in slow slip events that precede a major, unarrested slip event along the entire contact surface. We suggest that the 1998
M5.0 Sendai and 1995 off-Etorofu earthquake sequences may correspond to this scenario. Our work demonstrates, qualitatively,
how the simplest deviation from uniform shear loading may significantly affect both earthquake nucleation processes and how
fault complexity develops. 相似文献