Many tools of chemical analysis, experimentation, modeling, and theory have the potential to increase our understanding of how fracture patterns develop at different geological time scales.
faults
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Earthquake Statistics Vary with Fault Size
A theoretical study explores why small earthquake sources can produce quasiperiodic sequences of identical events, whereas earthquakes on large faults are intrinsically more variable.
![Figure 4 from paper by Preuss et al. [2019]](https://i0.wp.com/eos.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/2019JB017324-Figure-4-sized.png?resize=820%2C615&ssl=1)
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Can We Tell If Faults Grew During or Between Earthquakes?
Numerical simulations of earthquake cycle deformation reveal that co-seismic and interseismic fault propagation can produce distinct propagation angles that may be recorded in the crust.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Laboratory Study Probes Triggering Mechanisms of Earthquakes
A new experimental technique traces the state of a shearing fault gouge and shows for the first time how friction of a fault surface can change as a function of varying normal stress.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Variations in Creep Along One of Earth’s Most Active Faults
Satellite-based radar images of motion along Turkey’s North Anatolian Fault are helping scientists understand when, where, and how creep occurs and its implications for seismic hazard.
Posted inNews
The Quaking, Shrinking Moon
New evidence suggests that the Moon may still be tectonically active.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Low-angle Normal Fault in Papua New Guinea is Rolling Along
Geologic and geomorphic observations of an active low-angle normal fault reveal a rolling-hinge mechanism accommodating the exhumation of a metamorphic core complex in Papua New Guinea.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A New Way of Visualizing Iceland’s Crustal Deformation
A novel method of calculating strain rates from GPS data shows the South Iceland Seismic Zone is experiencing rapid deformation, including inflation near the island’s most active volcano.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
All Types of Large Earthquakes Produce Prompt Gravity Signals
New observations of recently discovered gravity perturbations that precede seismic waves have the potential to improve earthquake early-warning systems in California and other tectonic settings.
Posted inNews
More Than a Million New Earthquakes Spotted in Archival Data
By reanalyzing seismic records, researchers found a plethora of tiny earthquakes in Southern California that trace new fault structures and reveal how earthquakes are triggered.