Benchun Duan et al. "A suite of exercises for verifying dynamic earthquake rupture codes. " Seismological Research Letters 89, no. 3 (2018) We describe a set of benchmark exercises that are designed to test if computer codes that simulate dynamic earthquake rupture are working as intended. These types of computer codes are often used to understand how earthquakes operate, and they produce simulation results that include earthquake size, amounts of fault slip, and the patterns of ground shaking and crustal deformation. The benchmark exercises examine a range of features that scientists incorporate in their dynamic earthquake rupture simulations. These include implementations of simple or complex fault geometry, off-fault rock response to an earthquake, stress conditions, and a variety of formulations for fault friction. Many of the benchmarks were designed to investigate scientific problems at the forefronts of earthquake physics and strong ground motions research. The exercises are freely available on our website for use by the scientific community.

We use shear transformation zone (STZ) theory to develop a deformation map for amorphous solids as a function of the imposed shear rate and initial material preparation. The STZ formulation incorporates recent simulation results [T. K. Haxton and A. J. Liu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 195701 (2007)] showing that the steady state effective temperature is rate dependent. The resulting model predicts a wide range of deformation behavior as a function of the initial conditions, including homogeneous deformation, broad shear bands, extremely thin shear bands, and the onset of material failure. In particular, the STZ model predicts homogeneous deformation for shorter quench times and lower strain rates, and inhomogeneous deformation for longer quench times and higher strain rates. The location of the transition between homogeneous and inhomogeneous flow on the deformation map is determined in part by the steady state effective temperature, which is likely material dependent. This model also suggests that material failure occurs due to a runaway feedback between shear heating and the local disorder, and provides an explanation for the thickness of shear bands near the onset of material failure. We find that this model, which resolves dynamics within a sheared material interface, predicts that the stress weakens with strain much more rapidly than a similar model which uses a single state variable to specify internal dynamics on the interface.

We use noise correlation and surface wave inversion to measure the S wave velocity changes at different depths near Parkfield, California, after the 2003 San Simeon and 2004 Parkfield earthquakes. We process continuous seismic recordings from 13 stations to obtain the noise cross‐correlation functions and measure the Rayleigh wave phase velocity changes over six frequency bands. We then invert the Rayleigh wave phase velocity changes using a series of sensitivity kernels to obtain the S wave velocity changes at different depths. Our results indicate that the S wave velocity decreases caused by the San Simeon earthquake are relatively small (~0.02%) and access depths of at least 2.3 km. The S wave velocity decreases caused by the Parkfield earthquake are larger (~0.2%), and access depths of at least 1.2 km. Our observations can be best explained by material damage and healing resulting mainly from the dynamic stress perturbations of the two large earthquakes.

Among the most fascinating, recent discoveries in seismology are the phenomena of dynamically triggered fault slip, including earthquakes, tremor, slow and silent slip—during which little seismic energy is radiated—and low frequency earthquakes. Dynamic triggering refers to the initiation of fault slip by a transient deformation perturbation, most often in the form of passing seismic waves. Determining the frictional constitutive laws and the physical mechanism(s) governing triggered faulting is extremely challenging because slip nucleation depths for tectonic faults cannot be probed directly. Of the spectrum of slip behaviors, triggered slow slip is particularly difficult to characterize due to the absence of significant seismic radiation, implying mechanical conditions different from triggered earthquakes. Slow slip is often accompanied by nonvolcanic tremor in close spatial and temporal proximity. The causal relationship between them has implications for the properties and physics governing the fault slip behavior. We are characterizing the physical controls of triggered slow slip via laboratory experiments using sheared granular media to simulate fault gouge. Granular rock and glass beads are sheared under constant normal stress, while subjected to transient stress perturbation by acoustic waves. Here we describe experiments with glass beads, showing that slow and silent slip can be dynamically triggered on laboratory faults by ultrasonic waves. The laboratory triggering may take place during stable sliding (constant friction and slip velocity) and/or early in the slip cycle, during unstable sliding (stick‐slip). Experimental evidence indicates that the nonlinear‐dynamical response of the gouge material is responsible for the triggered slow slip.

We use ambient noise cross-correlations to monitor small but reliable changes in seismic velocities and to analyse non-volcanic tremor (NVT) intensities during the slow slip event (SSE) that occurred in 2009 and 2010 in Guerrero. We test the sensitivity of the seismic velocity to strain variations in absence of strong motions. The 2009-2010 SSE presents a complex slip sequence with two subevents occurring in two different portions of the fault. From a seismic array of 59 seismometers, installed in small antennas, we detect a velocity drop with maximum amplitude at the time of the first subevent. We analyse the velocity change at different period bands and observe that the velocity perturbation associated with the SSE maximizes for periods longer than 12 s. Then a linearized inversion of the velocity change measured at different period bands is applied in order to determine the depth of the portion of the crust affected by this perturbation. No velocity change in the first 10 km is detected. Below, the velocity perturbation increases with depth, affecting the middle and lower crust. Finally, we compute the transient deformation produced by the SSE in an elastic model using the slip evolution recovered from the inversion of continuous GPS. The comparison between the velocity changes and the deformation suggests that the velocity change is correlated with the strain rate rather than with the strain. This result is similar to what was observed during the 2006 SSE in the same region and suggests a non-linear behaviour of the crust.The velocity changes can be interpreted together with other observables such as NVTs. During the 2009-2010 SSE we measure NVT activity using continuous seismic records filtered between 2 and 8 Hz. We observe a correlation between velocity changes (for period band greater than 14 s) and tremor activity whereas no correlation exists between velocity changes and seismic noise energy measured at long periods. These observations suggest that both seismic velocity change and NVT can be used as indication of transient deformation at depth.