Mechanisms of slip nucleation during earthquakes

Abstract

Slip nucleation during earthquakes is apparently analogous to rupture nucleation within an intact rock sample subjected to triaxial loading. The observations indicate that both these nucleation processes initiate within a relatively small volume and in both the slip propagates unstably along a quasi-planar surface. In both processes a single, pre-existing, shear fracture cannot nucleate the large-scale slip, and in both a `process zone' that includes several interacting fractures in a small volume are required to initiate the unstable slip. Both processes require rupture of intact rocks, generate complex fracture geometry, and are associated with intense energy-release rate during slip. Recent observations and analyses are used to correlate rupture nucleation in laboratory tests with nucleation events of large earthquakes. It is proposed that earthquake nucleation occurs by the interaction among multiple fractures within a small volume that develops into unstable yielding of the healed fault zone.