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Earthquakes and friction laws

Nature volume 391, pages 37–42 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Earthquakes have long been recognized as resulting from a stick–slip frictional instability. The development of a full constitutive law for rock friction now shows that the gamut of earthquake phenomena—seismogenesis and seismic coupling, pre- and post-seismic phenomena, and the insensitivity of earthquakes to stress transients—all appear as manifestations of the richness of this friction law.

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Figure 1: Systematics of the friction parameter (a − b).
Figure 2: A synoptic model for stability as a function of depth for crustal faults and subduction zones.
Figure 3: Oscillatory motion (creep episodes) of the creeping section of the San Andreas fault in central California (from ref. 10).
Figure 4: The observed seismic coupling coefficient χ versus the calculated reduction in normal force from a standard state for most of.
Figure 5: Slip as a function of depth over the seismic cycle of a strike–slip fault, using a frictional model containing a transition.
Figure 6

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Acknowledgements

I thank L. Sykes and B. Shaw for comments. This work was partially supported by the US Geological Survey.

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  1. the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, Palisades, 10964, New York, USA

    Christopher H. Scholz

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Scholz, C. Earthquakes and friction laws. Nature 391, 37–42 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/34097

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