Observation of Long Supershear Rupture During the Magnitude 8.1 Kunlunshan Earthquake

Bouchon, Micheĺ; Vallée, Martin

doi:10.1126/science.1086832

Cited by 266 publications

(224 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…9, these new experiments have revealed various rupture modes that are loosely classified as follows: slow ruptures, which propagate far below the material wave speeds [141,[146][147][148], "sub-Rayleigh" ruptures [141,146,147,149] that propagate up to the Rayleigh wave-speed c R , and "super-shear" rupture modes that surpass the shear wave-speed c s [141,146,[149][150][151][152]. It is important to note that analogs of all of these rupture modes have been documented in natural earthquakes [144,145,[153][154][155][156].…”

Section: The Dynamics Of Frictional Interfaces: On the Relation Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recent developments in dynamic fracture: some perspectives

Fineberg

Bouchbinder

2015

Int J Fract

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We briefly review a number of important recent experimental and theoretical developments in the field of dynamic fracture. Topics include experimental validation of the equations of motion for straight tensile cracks (in both infinite media and strip geometries), validation of a new theoretical description of the near-tip fields of dynamic cracks incorporating weak elastic nonlinearities, a new understanding of dynamic instabilities of tensile cracks in both 2D and 3D, crack front dynamics, and the relation between frictional motion and dynamic shear cracks. Related future research directions are briefly discussed.

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Section: The Dynamics Of Frictional Interfaces: On the Relation Bmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…when the "friction coefficient" is significantly greater than µ s 0.6 in PMMA [141] or granite [152]). In addition to laboratory experiments and simulations, there is growing evidence that super-shear propagation can occur in earthquakes [156,[204][205][206][207] which are often associated with extreme damage.…”

Section: Fig 12mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent developments in dynamic fracture: some perspectives

Fineberg

Bouchbinder

2015

Int J Fract

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“…Experiments by Xia et al (2004) showed the existence of this so-called BurridgeAndrews mechanism for transition into supershear. Supershear rupture propagation has also been observed in nature during the 2001 Kunlunshan (Bouchon and Vallée, 2003), the 2002 Denali (Dunham and Archuleta, 2004) and the 2010 Qinghai earthquakes (Wang and Mori, 2012). All three earthquakes started at propagation speeds below the shear wave velocity and then transitioned to supershear speeds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…In nature rupture has been observed to transition from subshear to supershear speed (Bouchon and Vallée, 2003) and to propagate at intersonic velocities. Although earthquakes at supershear speeds are rare they yield higher ground motion than subshear earthquakes (Bernard and Baumont, 2005) so it is important to study them in the laboratory and in numerical models.…”

Section: The Effect Of Stress-distortions From Model Setup On Supershmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress heterogeneities in earthquake rupture experiments with material contrasts

Langer¹,

Weatherley²,

Olsen-Kettle³

et al. 2013

Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids

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We investigate significant heterogeneous stresses along bimaterial interfaces in laboratory and numerical experiments. These stresses, partially induced by model or experimental configuration, affect the supershear transition length and rupture speed, mode and directivity in uniaxial compression tests and dynamic rupture experiments with bimaterial interfaces. Using numerical simulations we show that normal and tangential stresses at the fault are distorted by the different stress-strain relationships of the materials. This distortion leads to altered supershear transition lengths, higher rupture potencies and amplifies the preference for rupture in the direction of slip of the slower and more compliant material. We demonstrate how this stress-distortion can be decreased in laboratory experiments by using larger specimen samples and in numerical models by using periodic boundary conditions.

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“…Note the drastic difference between the two, which is caused by saturation of M S for great earthquakes. [8] where, [9] Two difficulties are encountered. First, with seismological measurements alone, the absolute value of the stresses, σ 0 and σ 1 , cannot be determined.…”

Section: Fracture Energymentioning

confidence: 99%

The diversity of the physics of earthquakes

Kanamori

2004

Proceedings of the Japan Academy. Ser. B: Physical and Biologic

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Earthquakes exhibit diverse characteristics. Most shallow earthquakes are "brittle" in the sense that they excite seismic waves efficiently. However, some earthquakes are slow, as characterized by tsunami earthquakes and even slower events without any obvious seismic radiation. Also, some earthquakes, like the 1994 Bolivian deep earthquake, involved a large amount of fracture and thermal energy and may be more appropriately called a thermal event, rather than an earthquake. Some earthquakes are caused by processes other than faulting, such as landslides. This diversity can be best understood in terms of the difference in the partition of the released potential energy to radiated, fracture, and thermal energies during an earthquake. This approach requires detailed studies on quantification of earthquakes and estimation of various kinds of energies involved in earthquake processes. This paper reviews the progress in this field from historical and personal points of view and discusses its implications for earthquake damage mitigation.Key words: Quantification of earthquakes; energy budget of earthquakes; radiation efficiency; rupture speed; earthquake rupture pattern; earthquake early warning. Reviewamplitude of seismic waves observed on the standard Wood-Anderson seismograph at a distance ∆ from the epicenter. The function f(∆) is determined empirically so that M L = 3 if A is 1 mm at a distance of 100 km. Although this is a purely empirical parameter and cannot be directly related to any specific physical parameter of the earthquake, it proved to be a very useful quantification parameter and has long been used widely not only in California but also worldwide.The scale has been extended so that it can be determined with different types of instruments and different kinds of seismic waves. Yet, most of the scales were still empirical in the sense that they were determined from the observed amplitude and it was difficult to relate them to the physical parameters of the earthquake. Gutenberg and Richter (1942, 1955), Båth (1966) and many others attempted to relate the magnitude to more meaningful seismic source parameters such as the radiated energy, E R . The relation obtained by Gutenberg (1956),where M S is the surface-wave magnitude (the magnitude scale computed from the amplitude of seismic surface waves at a period of about 20 sec) has been used for a long time as a useful relationship, which converts the empirical parameter M S to a physical parameter E R . This practice is meaningful only if the 20 sec wave represents the overall energy spectrum. It turned out that the 20 sec wave represents the energy spectrum reasonably well for earthquakes up to M S = 7.5. For events larger than M S = 7.5, the peak of the energy spectrum is at a period much longer than 20 sec. The 20 sec wave used for M S determination can no longer represent the total energy of the radiated seismic wave; as a result, the M S scale saturates beyond M S = 8. For earthquakes with very large fault areas, for which the total amount of...

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Observation of Long Supershear Rupture During the Magnitude 8.1 Kunlunshan Earthquake

Cited by 266 publications

References 16 publications

Recent developments in dynamic fracture: some perspectives

Recent developments in dynamic fracture: some perspectives

Stress heterogeneities in earthquake rupture experiments with material contrasts

The diversity of the physics of earthquakes

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