Seismic cycles, size of the largest events, and the avalanche size distribution in a model of seismicity

The influence of the brittle-ductile transition zone on aftershock and foreshock occurrence

Aftershock occurrence is characterized by scaling behaviors with quite universal exponents. At the same time, deviations from universality have been proposed as a tool to discriminate aftershocks from foreshocks. Here we show that the change in rheological behavior of the crust, from velocity weakening to velocity strengthening, represents a viable mechanism to explain statistical features of both aftershocks and foreshocks. More precisely, we present a model of the seismic fault described as a velocity weakening elastic layer coupled to a velocity strengthening visco-elastic layer. We show that the statistical properties of aftershocks in instrumental catalogs are recovered at a quantitative level, quite independently of the value of model parameters. We also find that large earthquakes are often anticipated by a preparatory phase characterized by the occurrence of foreshocks. Their magnitude distribution is significantly flatter than the aftershock one, in agreement with recent results for forecasting tools based on foreshocks.

Seismiclike organization of avalanches in a driven long-range elastic string as a paradigm of brittle cracks

Crack growth in heterogeneous materials sometimes exhibits crackling dynamics, made of successive impulselike events with specific scale-invariant time and size organization reminiscent of earthquakes. Here, we examine this dynamics in a model which identifies the crack front with a long-range elastic line driven in a random potential. We demonstrate that, under some circumstances, fracture grows intermittently, via scale-free impulse organized into aftershock sequences obeying the fundamental laws of statistical seismology. We examine the effects of the driving rate and system overall stiffness (unloading factor) onto the scaling exponents and cutoffs associated with the time and size organization. We unravel the specific conditions required to observe a seismiclike organization in the crack propagation problem. Beyond failure problems, implications of these results to other crackling systems are finally discussed.

Experimental Evidence of Accelerated Seismic Release without Critical Failure in Acoustic Emissions of Compressed Nanoporous Materials

The total energy of acoustic emission (AE) events in externally stressed materials diverges when approaching macroscopic failure. Numerical and conceptual models explain this accelerated seismic release (ASR) as the approach to a critical point that coincides with ultimate failure. Here, we report ASR during soft uniaxial compression of three silica-based (SiO_{2}) nanoporous materials. Instead of a singular critical point, the distribution of AE energies is stationary, and variations in the activity rate are sufficient to explain the presence of multiple periods of ASR leading to distinct brittle failure events. We propose that critical failure is suppressed in the AE statistics by mechanisms of transient hardening. Some of the critical exponents estimated from the experiments are compatible with mean field models, while others are still open to interpretation in terms of the solution of frictional and fracture avalanche models.

Avalanches dynamics in reaction fronts in disordered flows

We report on numerical studies of avalanches of an autocatalytic reaction front in a porous medium. The front propagation is controlled by an adverse flow resulting in upstream, static, or downstream regimes. In an earlier study focusing on front shape, we identified three different universality classes associated with this system by following the front dynamics experimentally and numerically. Here, using numerical simulations in the vicinity of the second-order transition, we identify an avalanche dynamics characterized by power-law distributions of avalanche sizes, durations, and lateral extensions. The related exponents agree well with the quenched-Kardar-Parisi-Zhang theory, which describes the front dynamics. However, the geometry of the propagating front differs slightly from that of the theoretical one. We show that this discrepancy can be understood in terms of the nonquasistatic correction induced by the finite front velocity.

Scaling laws in earthquake occurrence: Disorder, viscosity, and finite size effects in Olami-Feder-Christensen models

The relation between seismic moment and fractured area is crucial to earthquake hazard analysis. Experimental catalogs show multiple scaling behaviors, with some controversy concerning the exponent value in the large earthquake regime. Here, we show that the original Olami, Feder, and Christensen model does not capture experimental findings. Taking into account heterogeneous friction, the viscoelastic nature of faults, together with finite size effects, we are able to reproduce the different scaling regimes of field observations. We provide an explanation for the origin of the two crossovers between scaling regimes, which are shown to be controlled both by the geometry and the bulk dynamics.

Mechanical origin of aftershocks

Aftershocks are the most striking evidence of earthquake interactions and the physical mechanisms at the origin of their occurrence are still intensively debated. Novel insights stem from recent results on the influence of the faulting style on the aftershock organisation in magnitude and time. Our study shows that the size of the aftershock zone depends on the fault geometry. We find that positive correlations among parameters controlling aftershock occurrence in time, energy and space are a stable feature of seismicity independently of magnitude range and geographic areas. We explain the ensemble of experimental findings by means of a description of the Earth Crust as an heterogeneous elastic medium coupled with a Maxwell viscoelastic asthenosphere. Our results show that heterogeneous stress distribution in an elastic layer combined with a coupling to a viscous flow are sufficient ingredients to describe the physics of aftershock triggering.

Avalanche-size distributions in mean-field plastic yielding models

We discuss the size distribution N(S) of avalanches occurring at the yielding transition of mean-field (i.e., Hebraud-Lequeux) models of amorphous solids. The size distribution follows a power law dependence of the form N(S)∼S(-τ). However (contrary to what is found in its depinning counterpart), the value of τ depends on details of the dynamic protocol used. For random triggering of avalanches we recover the τ=3/2 exponent typical of mean-field models, which, in particular, is valid for the depinning case. However, for the physically relevant case of external loading through a quasistatic increase of applied strain, a smaller exponent (close to 1) is obtained. This result is rationalized by mapping the problem to an effective random walk in the presence of a moving absorbing boundary.

Frictional dynamics of viscoelastic solids driven on a rough surface

We study the effect of viscoelastic dynamics on the frictional properties of a (mean-field) spring-block system pulled on a rough surface by an external drive. When the drive moves at constant velocity V, two dynamical regimes are observed: at fast driving, above a critical threshold V(c), the system slides at the drive velocity and displays a friction force with velocity weakening. Below V(c) the steady sliding becomes unstable and a stick-slip regime sets in. In the slide-hold-slide driving protocol, a peak of the friction force appears after the hold time and its amplitude increases with the hold duration. These observations are consistent with the frictional force encoded phenomenologically in the rate-and-state equations. Our model gives a microscopical basis for such macroscopic description.

Scaling description of the yielding transition in soft amorphous solids at zero temperature

Yield stress materials flow if a sufficiently large shear stress is applied. Although such materials are ubiquitous and relevant for industry, there is no accepted microscopic description of how they yield, even in the simplest situations in which temperature is negligible and in which flow inhomogeneities such as shear bands or fractures are absent. Here we propose a scaling description of the yielding transition in amorphous solids made of soft particles at zero temperature. Our description makes a connection between the Herschel-Bulkley exponent characterizing the singularity of the flow curve near the yield stress Σc, the extension and duration of the avalanches of plasticity observed at threshold, and the density P(x) of soft spots, or shear transformation zones, as a function of the stress increment x beyond which they yield. We argue that the critical exponents of the yielding transition may be expressed in terms of three independent exponents, θ, df, and z, characterizing, respectively, the density of soft spots, the fractal dimension of the avalanches, and their duration. Our description shares some similarity with the depinning transition that occurs when an elastic manifold is driven through a random potential, but also presents some striking differences. We test our arguments in an elasto-plastic model, an automaton model similar to those used in depinning, but with a different interaction kernel, and find satisfying agreement with our predictions in both two and three dimensions.

Viscoelastic effects in avalanche dynamics: a key to earthquake statistics

In many complex systems a continuous input of energy over time can be suddenly relaxed in the form of avalanches. Conventional avalanche models disregard the possibility of internal dynamical effects in the interavalanche periods, and thus miss basic features observed in some real systems. We address this issue by studying a model with viscoelastic relaxation, showing how coherent oscillations of the stress field can emerge spontaneously. Remarkably, these oscillations generate avalanche patterns that are similar to those observed in seismic phenomena.