Rheology of fault rocks and their surroundings

Terry E. Tullis, Roland Bürgmann, Massimo Cocco, Greg H. Hirth, Geoffrey C. King, Onno Oncken, Kenshiro Otsuki, James R. Rice, Allan M. Rubin, Paul Segall, Shawn Shapiro, & Christopher A. Wibberley

Published 2007, SCEC Contribution #1054

Much has been learned about the rheology and mechanics of faults and earthquakes in the past several years, and it is an exciting as well as societally important area of research. We have identified numerous areas where additional research efforts could be focused to fill in some of the critical gaps in our knowledge. This would bring us closer to the goals of creating computer simulations of dynamic rupture of earthquakes using what appear to be realistically low values of dynamic shear resistance. Through such models, we may then be able to predict strong ground motions from first principles. This can help us know where to build structures and how to design them to withstand damage. Studies of the earthquake nucleation process may even bring us closer to the elusive goal of reliable earthquake prediction.

Citation
Tullis, T. E., Bürgmann, R., Cocco, M., Hirth, G. H., King, G. C., Oncken, O., Otsuki, K., Rice, J. R., Rubin, A. M., Segall, P., Shapiro, S., & Wibberley, C. A. (2007). Rheology of fault rocks and their surroundings. Cambridge, USA: MIT Press.