Laboratory earthquakes decipher control and stability of rupture speeds.

ABSTRACT: Earthquakes are destructive natural hazards with damage capacity dictated by rupture speeds. Traditional dynamic rupture models predict that earthquake ruptures gradually accelerate to the Rayleigh wave speed with some of them further jumping to stable supershear speeds above the Eshelby speed (~[Formula: see text] times S wave speed). However, the 2018 M_w 7.5 Palu earthquake, among several others, significantly challenges such a viewpoint. Here we generate spontaneous shear ruptures on laboratory faults to confirm that ruptures can indeed attain steady subRayleigh or supershear propagation speeds immediately following nucleation. A self-similar analysis of dynamic rupture confirms our observation, leading to a simple model where the rupture speed is uniquely dependent on a driv

SUBMITTER: Dong P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10140064 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature