Abstract
A series of laboratory experiments have been carried out with a model of two granite blocks under biaxial compression loading. The experiments are mainly intended for assessing the possibilities of partially releasing the accumulated potential energy. The model was subjected to calibrated mechanical impacts (strokes) which induced elastic impulses. The mechanical stresses, strains, and acoustic emission were recorded. The strokes caused both large slips releasing the stresses down to their initial level and small slips which reduced the stresses by 5–8%. The small slips mostly occurred after the precursory emergence of the low frequency oscillations having low amplitudes. Before the large slips, the stages of speeding-up of the relative motion of the sides of the block contact was observed, similar to those emerging before the natural slips unrelated to the strokes. This feature was not universal: in some cases, the model recovered to the stationary state of the block contact without a large slip. All the slips occurred with a time delay after the stroke. The time delay was shorter when the energy of the blow was higher. With the shorter time delays, the small slip is more likely to occur. The energy of the impacts was by three orders of magnitude lower than the energy accumulated by the model, which points to the triggering mechanism of slip initiation. The series of strokes resulting in the small displacements partially reduced the accumulated energy and prevented the emergence of large motions such as the stick-slip events. If after a series of such blows a large sliding event still occurred, its energy was higher than in the slips unrelated to the impacts. The experiments revealed the difficulties in solving the problem of earthquake hazard reduction by elastic impacts.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adushkin, V.V., Kocharyan, G.G., Pavlov, D.V., et al., Influence of seismic vibrations on the development of tectonic deformations, Dokl. Earth Sci., 2009, vol. 426, no. 4, pp. 588–590.
Avagimov, A.A. and Zeigarnik, V.A., The analysis of the trigger action exerted by electromagnetic fields on a geological medium: quantitative estimates of the interaction, Izv., Phys. Solid Earth, 2016, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 233–241.
Bak, P., Tang, S., and Winsenfeld, K., Earthquakes as selforganized critical phenomenon, J. Geophys. Res., 1989, vol. 94, pp. 15635–15637.
Bowden, F.P. and Tabor, D., The Friction and Lubrication of Solids. Parts 1 and 2, Oxford: Clarendon, 1950.
Bowden, F.P. and Tabor, D., The Friction and Lubrication of Solids, Oxford: Clarendon, 1964, vol. 2.
Brace, W.F. and Byerlee, J.D., Stick-slip as a mechanism for earthquakes, Science, 1966, vol. 153, pp. 990–992.
Brantut, N., Schubnel, A., Rouzaud, J.-N., Brunet, F., and Shimamoto, T., High-velocity frictional properties of a clay-bearing fault gouge and implications for earthquake mechanics, J. Geophys. Res., 2008, vol. 113, B 10401.
Carpenter, B., Saffer, D.M., and Marone, C., Frictional properties of the active San Andreas fault at SAFOD: implications for fault strength and slip behavior, J. Geophys. Res., 2015, vol. 120, no. 7, pp. 5273–5289.
Castro, R.R., González-Huízar, H., Zúñiga, F.R., Wong, V.M., and Velasco, A.A., Delayed dynamic triggered seismicity in northern Baja California, México, caused by large and remote earthquakes, Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 2015, vol. 105, no. 4, pp. 1825–1835.
Dieterich, J.H., Preseismic fault slip and earthquake prediction, J. Geophys Res. B, 1978, vol. 83, no. 8, pp. 3940–3948.
Green, H.W., Shi, F., Bozhilov, K., Xia, G., and Reches, Z., Phase transformation and nanometric flow cause extreme weakening during fault slip, Nat. Geosci., 2015, no. 8, pp. 484–489.
Guglielmi, A.V., Zotov, O.D., and Zavyalov, A.D., The aftershock dynamics of the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, Izv., Phys. Solid Earth, 2014, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 64–72.
Kocharyan, G.G., Markov, V.K., Ostapchuk, A.A., and Pavlov, D.V., Mesomechanics of shear resistance along a filled crack, Phys. Mesomech., 2014, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 123–133.
Kocharyan, G.G. and Novikov, V.A., Experimental study of different sliding modes of the blocks on the interface surface. Part 1: Laboratory experiments, Fiz. Mezomekh., 2015, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 94–104.
Kocharyan, G.G. and Ostapchuk, A.A., The influence of viscosity of thin fluid films on the frictional interaction mechanism of rock blocks, Dokl. Earth Sci., 2015, vol. 463, no. 1, pp. 757–759.
Morrow, C.A., Lockner, D.A., Moore, D.E., and Hickman, S., Deep permeability of the San Andreas Fault from San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) core samples, J. Struct. Geol., 2014, vol. 64, pp. 99–114.
Ohnaka, M., Kuwahara, Y., Yamamoto, K., and Hirosawa, T., Dynamic breakdown processes and the generating mechanism for high-frequency elastic radiation during stick-slip instability, in Earthquake Source Mechanics, Das, Sh., Boatwright, J., and Scholz, Ch.H., Eds., Geophys. Monogr. Amer. Geophys. Union, 1986, vol. 37, pp. 13–24.
Johnson, P.A., Savage, H., Knuth, M., Gomberg, J., and Marone, Ch., Effects of acoustic waves on stick–slip in granular media and implications for earthquakes, Nature, 2008, vol. 451, no. 3, pp. 57–60.
Rabinowicz, E., The nature of the static and kinetic coefficients of friction, J. Appl. Phys., 1951, vol. 22, p. 1373. doi 10.1063/1.1699869
Ruzhich, V.V., Psakhie, S.G., Chernykh, E.N., Shilko, E.V., Levina, E.A., and Ponomareva, E.I., Physical modeling of seismic source generation in failure of fault asperities, Phys. Mesomech., 2014, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 274–281.
Scholz, C.H., The Mechanics of Earthquakes and Faulting, Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990.
Smelyanskiy, V.N., Dykman, M.I., and Golding, B., Time oscillations of escape rates in periodically driven systems, Phys. Rev. Lett., 1999, vol. 82, no. 16, p. 3193–3197.
Sobolev, G.A., Kol’tsov, A.V., and Andreev, V.O., The triggering effect of the oscillations in the model of an earthquake, Dokl. Akad. Nauk, 1991, vol. 319, pp. 337–341.
Sobolev, G., Spetzler, H., Koltsov, A., and Chelidze, T., An experimental study of triggered stick-slip, Pure Appl. Geophys., 1993, vol. 140, no. 1, pp. 79–94.
Sobolev, G.A., Ponomarev, A.V., and Kol’tsov, A.V., Excitation of the oscillations in the model of seismic source, Izv. Ross. Akad. Nauk, Fiz. Zemli, 1995, no. 12, pp. 72–78.
Sobolev, G.A., Ponomarev, A.V., Koltsov, A.V., and Smirnov, V.B., Simulation of trigger earthquakes in the laboratory. Pure Appl. Geophys., 1996, vol. 147, no. 2, pp. 345–355.
Sobolev, G.A. and Ponomarev, A.V., Fizika zemletryasenii i predvestniki (Physics of the Earthquakes and the Precursors), Moscow: Nauka, 2003.
Sobolev, G.A., Kontseptsiya predskazuemosti zemletryasenii na osnove dinamiki seismichnosti pri triggernom vozdeistvii (The Concept of Predictability of the Earthquakes Based on the Dynamics of Seismicity Under Triggering), Moscow: IFZ RAN, 2011.
Sornette, D. and Sammis, C., Complex critical exponents from renormalization group theory of earthquakes: implications for earthquake predictions, J. de Physique I, EDP Sciences, 1995, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 607–619.
Stavrogin, A.N. and Protosenya, A.G., Prochnost’ gornykh porod i ustoichivost’ vyrabotok na bol’shikh glubinakh (Rock Strength and Opening Strength at Large Depths), Moscow: Nedra, 1985.
Triggernye effekty v geosistemakh (Triggering Effects in Geosystems), Moscow: Geos, 2010.
Triggernye effekty v geosistemakh (Triggering Effects in Geosystems), Moscow: Geos, 2013.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © G.A. Sobolev, A.V. Ponomarev, Yu.Ya. Maibuk, 2016, published in Fizika Zemli, 2016, No. 5, pp. 51–69.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sobolev, G.A., Ponomarev, A.V. & Maibuk, Y.Y. Initiation of unstable slips–microearthquakes by elastic impulses. Izv., Phys. Solid Earth 52, 674–691 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1134/S106935131605013X
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S106935131605013X