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Effects of acoustic waves on stick–slip in granular media and implications for earthquakes

Abstract

It remains unknown how the small strains induced by seismic waves can trigger earthquakes at large distances, in some cases thousands of kilometres from the triggering earthquake, with failure often occurring long after the waves have passed1,2,3,4,5,6. Earthquake nucleation is usually observed to take place at depths of 10–20 km, and so static overburden should be large enough to inhibit triggering by seismic-wave stress perturbations. To understand the physics of dynamic triggering better, as well as the influence of dynamic stressing on earthquake recurrence, we have conducted laboratory studies of stick–slip in granular media with and without applied acoustic vibration. Glass beads were used to simulate granular fault zone material, sheared under constant normal stress, and subject to transient or continuous perturbation by acoustic waves. Here we show that small-magnitude failure events, corresponding to triggered aftershocks, occur when applied sound-wave amplitudes exceed several microstrain. These events are frequently delayed or occur as part of a cascade of small events. Vibrations also cause large slip events to be disrupted in time relative to those without wave perturbation. The effects are observed for many large-event cycles after vibrations cease, indicating a strain memory in the granular material. Dynamic stressing of tectonic faults may play a similar role in determining the complexity of earthquake recurrence.

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Figure 1: Experimental apparatus.
Figure 2: Stick–slip behaviour under constant shearing rate, without vibration.
Figure 3: Stick–slip with and without vibration.
Figure 4: Stick-slip recurrence time and stress drop comparing vibration and non-vibration experiments.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by Institutional Support (LDRD) at Los Alamos and the DOE Office of Basic Energy Science (P.A.J.), by the National Science Foundation (C.M., H.S., M.K.), and by the United States Geological Survey (J.G.). We thank E. Brodsy, B. Behringer, N. Beeler and X. Jia for comments and reviews.

Author Contributions P.A.J., M.K., H.S. and C.M. designed the study. M.K., P.A.J. and C.M. designed and carried out the data collection procedure. P.A.J. and H.S. did most of the data analyses. P.A.J. and C.M. did most of the writing. P.A.J., H.S., M.K. and C.M. did the laboratory work and J.G. and C.M. did much of the writing interpretation. All authors contributed to the interpretation and writing.

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Correspondence to Paul A. Johnson.

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Johnson, P., Savage, H., Knuth, M. et al. Effects of acoustic waves on stick–slip in granular media and implications for earthquakes. Nature 451, 57–60 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06440

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