William Mong Distinguished Lecture
by Professor Aiming Lin
Aug 3, 2017
Professor Lin Aiming from the Kyoto University, gave a lecture on August 3, 2017 titled “Fault strength and seismic rupture mechanism”.
The strength of seismogenic fault is an important factor in understanding the rupture mechanisms of large earthquakes and the rheological properties of seismogenic fault. During the past decades, geological and geophysical evidence suggests that some active faults are weak compared with the experimental measurements of frictional strength, but the fault strength is still a subject matter in dispute. In the lecture, Prof. Lin focused on three related issues: i) the rupture mechanisms of seismogenic fault related with the fault strength, ii) formation processes of seismic fault rocks including Earthquake Fossil (pseudotachylyte) and related earthquake materials that form within natural seismogenic fault zones and in high-speed frictional experiments, and iii) the fault zone model showing the seismic slip resulting from large earthquakes that nucleate in the lower portion of the brittle regime in the upper crust is able to propagate downward through the brittle-ductile transition zone to the plastic flow regime in the lower crust.