Unknown
In:
Nature, Taipei, Elsevier, vol. 437, no. 7055, pp. 133-136, pp. L15S13, (ISBN:
0-12-018847-3)
Publication Date:
2005
Description:
Fracture energy is a form of latent heat required to create an earthquake
rupture surface and is related to parameters governing rupture propagation and processes
of slip weakening. Fracture energy has been estimated from seismological and
experimental rock deformation data, yet its magnitude, mechanisms of rupture surface
formation and processes leading to slip weakening are not well defined. Here we quantify
structural observations of the Punchbowl fault, a large-displacement exhumed fault in
the San Andreas fault system, and show that the energy required to create the fracture
surface area in the fault is about 300 times greater than seismological estimates would
predict for a single large earthquake. If fracture energy is attributed entirely to the
production of fracture surfaces, then all of the fracture surface area in the Punchbowl
fault could have been produced by earthquake displacements totalling 〈1 km. But
this would only account for a small fraction of the total energy budget, and therefore
additional processes probably contributed to slip weakening during earthquake rupture.
Keywords:
Fracture
;
Fault zone
;
SAF
;
California
;
USA
;
Rock mechanics
;
Seismology
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