Effects of roughness and wear on nucleation of large earthquake and premonitory seismicity
Research into the frictional dynamics from laboratory experiments have shed new light into the effects of roughness and wear on nucleation of large earthquake and premonitory seismicity
Dr. Paul Selvadurai and his coauthor’s external page recent publication in Tectonophysics looked at roughness from laboratory experiments as inputs to frictional simulations. The model captured features of the worn surface in using a novel barcode-style formulation that accounted for heterogeneity. This allowed them to implicitly capture wear on the fault which featured representation that characterized smooth/brittle patches embedded in a rough/tough background. They employed a rate and state friction simulator to looked into nucleation physics and found that toughness heterogeneity plays an important role. These models provide more insight into scaling of seismicity prior to large earthquake can be used to improve forecasting capabilities.