The State of Stress on the Fault Before, During, and After a Major Earthquake

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Abstract

Earthquakes occur by overcoming fault friction; therefore, quantifying fault resistance is central to earthquake physics. Values for both static and dynamic friction are required, and the latter is especially difficult to determine on natural faults. However, large earthquakes provide signals that can determine friction in situ. The Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project ( JFAST), an Integrated Ocean Discovery Program expedition, determined stresses by collecting data directly from the fault 1–2 years after the 2011 M _w 9.1 Tohoku earthquake. Geological, rheological, and geophysical data record stress before, during, and after the earthquake. Together, the observations imply that the shear strength during the earthquake was substantially below that predicted by the traditional Byerlee's law. Locally the stress drop appears near total, and stress reversal is plausible. Most solutions to the energy balance require off-fault deformation to account for dissipation during rupture. These observations make extreme coseismic weakening the preferred model for fault behavior. ▪ Determining the friction during an earthquake is required to understand when and where earthquakes occur. ▪ Drilling into the Tohoku fault showed that friction during the earthquake was low. ▪ Dynamic friction during the earthquake was lower than static friction. ▪ Complete stress drop is possible, and stress reversal is plausible.

Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Volume 48 is May 29, 2020. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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Author and article information

Journal

Title: Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Abbreviated Title: Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci.

Publisher: Annual Reviews

ISSN (Print): 0084-6597

ISSN (Electronic): 1545-4495

Publication date Created: May 30 2020

Publication date (Electronic): November 15 2019

Publication date (Print): May 30 2020

Volume: 48

Issue: 1

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA;

[2 ]Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Kyoto 611-0011, Japan

[3 ]Total E&P UK Limited, Westhill AB32 6JZ, United Kingdom

[4 ]Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA

[5 ]Université de Lorraine, CNRS, GeoRessources, 54000 Nancy, France

[6 ]Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

[7 ]Institute for Marine-Earth Exploration and Engineering, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka-city, Kanagawa 237-0061, Japan

[8 ]Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

[9 ]Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan

[10 ]Kochi Institute for CoreSample Research, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Kochi 783-8502, Japan

[11 ]MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen, D-28359 Bremen, Germany

[12 ]Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA

[13 ]Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0032, Japan

[14 ]Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 0E8, Canada

[15 ]Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama 236-0001, Japan

[16 ]Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan

[17 ]US Department of Energy, Washington, DC 20024, USA

[18 ]Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA

[19 ]Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy 41125

[20 ]Department of Geosciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA

[21 ]School of Earth and Sustainability, North Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011, USA

[22 ]Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-0006, Japan

[23 ]Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, California 95039-0628, USA

[24 ]Hubei Subsurface Multi-Scale Imaging Key Laboratory, Institute of Geophysics and Geomatics, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China

Article

DOI: 10.1146/annurev-earth-053018-060507

SO-VID: ee186661-e845-4b98-9f2c-716b89186917

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