Mechanics of Earthquakes and Granular Matter

…………… a space for everything trrrembling!Keywords: Friction, gouge, dynamic fracture ,thermo-hydro mechanical weakening, strain localization, stick-slip, induced seismicity, spectral boundary integral, slip pulses.

The long term objective of this research is to link small scale  processes in fault zones with large scale dynamic rupture characteristics, wave propagation, seismic and aseismic slip, and long term earthquake cycle models to provide rigorous predictive tools for nonlinear fault dynamics that can ultimately inform next generation seismic hazard models. Our work is contributing to the development of micromechanical models of deformation and failure in granular materials, modeling dynamic ruptures in heterogeneous fault zones and branched fault systems, identification of hydro-thermo- mechanical weakening mechanisms specific to fault gouge, investigation of strain localization and stick-slip dynamics in sheared and vibrated granular layers with breakable particles, and establishment of novel hybrid numerical techniques for multi-scale fault zone dynamics.

Team members: Mohamed Abdelmeguid, Setare Hajarolasvadi, Konik Kothari (Alumnus), Xiao Ma, Yuyang Rao, and Ahmed Elbanna.

  • Erickson, B. A., Jiang, J., Lambert, V., Abdelmeguid, M., Almquist, M., Ampuero, J. P., … & Yang, Y. (2022). Incorporating Full Elastodynamic Effects and Dipping Fault Geometries in Community Code Verification Exercises for Simulations of Earthquake Sequences and Aseismic Slip (SEAS). Submitted to Seismological Research Letters. link
  • Abdelmeguid, M., & Elbanna, A. (2022). The Impact of Fault Zone Plasticity on Sequences of Earthquakes and Aseismic Slip: The Role of Stress Orientation and Bulk Cohesion. Submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research. link
  • Abdelmeguid, M., & Elbanna, A. (2022). Sequences of seismic and aseismic slip on bimaterial faults show dominant rupture asymmetry and potential for elevated seismic hazard. Submitted to Earth and Planetary Science Letters. link.
  • Mia, M. S., Abdelmeguid, M., & Elbanna, A. E. (2022). Spatio‐Temporal Clustering of Seismicity Enabled by Off‐Fault Plasticity. Geophysical Research Letters, e2021GL097601. link
  • Faisal Amlani, Harsha S Bhat, Wim JF Simons, Alexandre Schubnel, Christophe Vigny, Ares J Rosakis, Joni Efendi, Ahmed Elbanna, Hasanuddin Z Abidin (2020), Supershear Tsunamis: Insights from Mw 7.5 Palu Earthquake. (Submitted)
  • Erickson, B. A., J. Jiang, M. Barall, N. Lapusta, E. M. Dunham, R. Harris, L. S. Abrahams, K. L. Allison, J.-P. Ampuero, S. Barbot, C. Cattania, A. Elbanna, Y. Fialko, B. Idini, J. E. Kozdon, V. Lambert, Y. Liu, Y. Luo, X. Ma, M. B. McKay, P. Segall, P. Shi, M. van den Ende, M. Wei (2019), The community code verification exercise for simulating sequences of earthquakes and aseismic slip (SEAS), Seismological Research Letters (accepted)
  • Abdelmeguid, M., Ma, X., & Elbanna, A. E. (2019). A Novel Hybrid Finite Element-Spectral Boundary Integral Scheme for Modeling Earthquake Cycles: Application to Rate and State Faults with Low-Velocity Zones. (Minor Revision – Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth) link pdf
  • Ma, X., & Elbanna, A. E. (2019). Dynamic Rupture Propagation on Fault Planes with Explicit Representation of Short Branches. Earth and Planetary Science Letter (in press) link pdf
  • Ma, X., Hajarolasvadi, S., Albertini, G., Kammer, D., & Elbanna, A. (2018). A hybrid finite element‐spectral boundary integral approach: Applications to dynamic rupture modeling in unbounded domains. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech. 2018;1‐22.  link pdf
  • Ma, X., & Elbanna, A. E. (2018). Strain Localization in Dry Sheared Fault Gouge: A Compactivity based approach. Phys. Rev. E, 98(2), 022906 link pdf
  • Lopez-Berganza, J. A., Song, R., Elbanna, A., & Espinosa-Marzal, R. M. (2017). Calcium carbonate with nanogranular microstructure yields enhanced toughness. Nanoscale, 9(43), 16689-16699.
  • Ma X., & Elbanna A. E. (2017), A model of athermal strain localization in sheared dry fault gouge. Submitted. (arXiv:1701.03087)
  • Hajarolasvadi S. & Elbanna A. E. (2017), A new hybrid numerical scheme for modelling elastodynamics in unbounded media with near-source heterogeneities. Geophysics Journal International, 211, 873–886.
  • Kothari K. & Elbanna A. E. (2017), Localization and Instability in Sheared Granular Materials: Role of Friction and Vibration. Physical Review E, 95, 022901.
  • Lieou, C. K., Elbanna, A. E., & Carlson, J. M. (2016). Dynamic friction in sheared fault gouge: implications of acoustic vibration on triggering and slow slip. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 121(3), 1483–1496.
  • Ma X., & Elbanna, A. (2015). Effect of off-fault low-velocity elastic inclusions on supershear rupture dynamics. Geophysics Journal International, 203 (1): 664-677.
  • Lieou, C. K., Elbanna, A. E., Langer, J. S., & Carlson, J. M. (2015). Stick-slip instabilities in sheared granular flow: The role of friction and acoustic vibrations. Physical Review E, 92(2), 022209.
  • Lieou CKC, Elbanna AE, Langer JS, and Carlson JM (2014), Shear flow of angular grains: acoustic effects and non-monotonic rate dependence of volume, Physical Review E, 90, 032204.
  • Elbanna, A. E., & Carlson, J. M. (2014). A two‐scale model for sheared fault gouge: Competition between macroscopic disorder and local viscoplasticity. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth,  119(6), 4841–4859. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2014JB011001
  • Lieou CKC, Elbanna AE, and Carlson J. (2014) Grain fragmentation in sheared granular flow: weakening effects, energy dissipation, and strain localization, Physical Review E, 89, 022203 . link
  • Elbanna A, and Heaton TH, (2012), A New Paradigm for Simulating Pulse-Like Ruptures: The Pulse Energy Equation, Geophysics Journal International, 189(3), 1797–1806. link