Oral Presentation

During earthquakes, faults heat up due to frictional resistance. Sometimes, the temperature rise during earthquakes makes the rocks hot enough to melt. However, solidified frictional melt (pseudotachylyte) is not very common in the rock record, and other paleoseismic temperature proxies have only recently been established. Here, we compile existing pseudotachylyte data along with new sub-solidus temperature proxies to identify temperature rise on faults in a variety of tectonic settings. With these new temperature proxies, we revisit some outstanding questions in fault mechanics such as: Where does earthquake slip occur in a fault zone? Can creeping faults host earthquakes? and How is energy partitioned during earthquakes? Finally, we will discuss how we can pair temperature measurements with dating techniques to build earthquake records on timescales of millions of years.