IGPP is pleased to invite you to join its Spring 2024 Seminar Series presentation featuring USC's Sylvain Barbot. Dr. Barbot's talk, "The Constitutive Behavior of Rocks During the Seismic Cycle" will occur at 3pm WEDNESDAY April 3, 2024.
Time: 3:00 pm, Pacific Time
Location: REVELLE Conference Room
Abstract: Establishing a constitutive law for fault friction is a crucial objective of earthquake science. However, the frictional behavior of rocks continues to elude explanation because of the wide range of hydrothermal, barometric, and lithological conditions found in the brittle crust. Here, we present a constitutive framework that elucidates the rate, state, normal stress, and temperature dependence of fault friction under the relevant sliding velocities and temperatures of the brittle lithosphere during seismic cycles. The constitutive model consistently explains the evolving frictional response of fault gouge from room temperature to 600ºC for sliding velocities ranging from nanometers to millimeters per second, and normal stress ranging from atmospheric pressure to two gigapascals. The study helps build increasingly realistic representations of fault mechanics during seismic cycles.