Researchers could soon gain new insights into fault development in Earth’s brittle crust, thanks to a computational approach that harnesses experimental observations of microscale rock damage.
faults
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Ancient Crustal Weaknesses Contribute to Modern Earthquakes in West Africa
Researchers dive into the mechanisms and stresses that trigger earthquakes along the passive margin and interior of the continent.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Repeated Coseismic Uplift Above the Patton Bay Splay Fault, Alaska
Stratigraphic and diatom analyses suggest ruptures of the Patton Bay splay fault occurred together with half of the documented great Alaskan megathrust earthquakes during the past 4,200 years.
Posted inScience Updates
Telecom Fibers Are Sensing Earthquake Hazards in Istanbul
A fiber-optic cable below Türkiye’s earthquake-prone metropolis is offering new details about how seismic waves will rattle the city—and demonstrating the potential of a bigger monitoring effort.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
The Secret to Mimicking Natural Faults? Plexiglass and Teflon
Researchers found an effective way to produce natural fault behavior in the laboratory.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Fault Maturity or Orientation: Which Matters More for Quakes?
Close examination of a 2021 earthquake on the Tibetan Plateau provides hints that, counter to prior assumptions, the influence of fault orientation can sometimes trump that of maturity.
Posted inNews
Earthquakes Can Trigger Megathrust Slip in Cascadia
A 2022 earthquake in Northern California may have triggered slow slip in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, according to a new study.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Uncovering Earthquake Evidence in Azerbaijan’s Greater Caucasus Mountains
A new study unearths geological evidence that corroborates historical accounts of large earthquakes along the Kura fold-thrust belt.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How Earthquakes Grow from a Tiny Fracture to a Catastrophic Event
State-of-art numerical simulations illustrate how a small-scale shear instability can become a giant earthquake in a manner that is consistent with seismological observation.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Plate Boundaries May Experience Higher Temperature and Stress Than We Thought
Surface heat flux data shed light on conditions deep below Earth’s surface, at a tectonic plate interface where major earthquakes initiate.