Faulting, Friction and Earthquake Mechanics

Faulting of the Earth's crust occurs on time-scales of seconds to millions of years and involves mechanical processes operative over spatial scales ranging from 10-3m to 10-5m. Because of this vast range of spatial and temporal scales the study of earthquakes and faulting is fundamentally multidisciplinary, drawing from geologic studies of fault zone structure as well as theoretical and laboratory studies of crack mechanics. How are these different processes and time-scales manifest in fault patterns, seismic radiation, and fault zones? How can our understanding of the individual processes and macroscopic phenomena be combined to yield a general understanding of faulting and earthquakes? This volume, which appears in two parts, focuses on these and related questions, highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of research on faulting and earthquakes. The volume grew out of an attempt to bring together recent work on issues such as the evolution with displacement of fault stability, the dynamics of earthquake rupture and earthquake scaling relations, the relation between fault zone structure and stability, the effect of fluids on failure criteria and fault properties, and the implications of microstructures in field and laboratory-scale fault zones for failure laws and the state of stress on faults. Included are laboratory studies of the micromechanics of friction in fault zones, theoretical studies of dynamic rupture on faults obeying slip rate and state-variable friction laws, and detailed field studies of fault zone structures and properties.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Fault mechanics, rupture processes and fracture - theory and observations: ductile creep and compaction - a mechanism for transiently increasing fluid pressure in mostly sealed fault zones, N.H. Sleep and M.L. Blanpied; grain and molecular controls on the ductile properties of mostly seismic faults at low-temperature hydrothermal conditions, N.H. Sleep; simulation of the frictional stick-slip instability, P. Mora and D. Place; earthquake rupture complexity due to dynamic nucleation and interaction of subsidiary faults, T. Yamashita and Y. Umeda; mechanisms of brittle fracture of rock with pre-existing cracks in compression, L.N. Germanovich et al; the role of the chemical environment in frictional deformation - stress corrosion cracking and comminution, J. Dunning et al. Part 2 Faulting and fault zones - field observations: petrophysical characteristics of faults in granular rock, M. Antonellini; particle size distribution of cataclastic fault materials from Southern California - a 3-D study, L.-J. An and C.G. Sammis; microstructural analysis of faulting in quartzite, Assynt, NW Scotland - implications for fault zone evolution, R.J. Knipe and G.E. Lloyd; interaction of cataclasis and pressure solution in a low-temperature carbonate shear zone, J. Hadizadeh. Part 3 Rock friction and shear zone mechanics - laboratory studies: direct observation of frictional contacts - new insights for state-dependant properties, J.H. Dieterich and B.D. Kilgore; micromechanics of the velocity and normal stress dependance of rock friction, W. Wang and C.H. Scholz; the frictional behaviour of lizardite and antigorite serpentines - experiments, constitutive models and implications for natural faults, L.A. Reinen et al; scaling of rock friction constitutive parameters - the effects of surface roughness and cumulative offset on friction of gabbro, C. Marone and S.J.D. Cox; development of shear localization in simulated quartz gouge - effect of cumulative slip and gouge particle size, Y. Gu and T.-F. Wong; laboratory measurement of compaction-induced permeability change inporous rocks - implications for the generation and maintenance of pore pressure excess in the crust, C. David et al; earthquake mechanism and predictability shown by a laboratory fault, C.-Y. King; a thermo-plastic constitutive law for brittle-plastic behaviour of rocks at high temperatures, T. Hueckel et al.