Earthquake Nucleation Along Faults With Heterogeneous Weakening Rate.

ABSTRACT: The transition from quasistatic slip growth to dynamic rupture propagation constitutes one possible scenario to describe earthquake nucleation. If this transition is rather well understood for homogeneous faults, how the friction properties of multiscale asperities may influence the overall stability of seismogenic faults remains largely unclear. Combining classical nucleation theory and concepts borrowed from condensed matter physics, we propose a comprehensive analytical framework that predicts the influence of heterogeneities of weakening rate on the nucleation length L c for linearly slip-dependent friction laws. Model predictions are compared to nucleation lengths measured from 2D dynamic simulations of earthquake nucleation along heterogeneous faults. Our results sho

SUBMITTER: Lebihain M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9286591 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature