Thread: AGU Session S021: How do earthquakes start?

Dear colleagues,

We would like to draw your attention to the following session being organized by the Seismology section at the upcoming 2019 AGU Fall meeting:

S021 - How do earthquakes start?

Invited speakers:
Emily Brodsky, University of California Santa Cruz
Paul Johnson, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Session Description:
While a number of physical processes and properties, such as fault frictional/structural heterogeneity, the presence of fluids, thermal effects, aseismic deformation, as well as static and dynamic stress changes, have been proposed to play a role in the nucleation and triggering of earthquakes, their relative significance and relevant spatial and temporal scales remain uncertain. We welcome experimental, theoretical and observational studies that explore and provide constraints on the mechanisms and conditions that are critical for understanding how ruptures begin, including but not limited to the following questions: (1) To what degree and at what spatio-temporal scales does heterogeneity impact nucleation? (2) Under what conditions do fluids induce unstable slip? (3) What role do static/dynamic stress changes play in promoting seismicity? (4) What is the relationship between aseismic deformation and earthquake nucleation? (5) Why do some ruptures accelerate and become large dynamic events while others remain small or aseismic?

Conveners:
Valère Lambert, California Institute of Technology
Yihe Huang, University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Thomas Goebel, University of California, Santa Cruz
Zach Ross, California Institute of Technology

As a reminder, the abstract submission deadline is Wednesday, July 31 at 23:59 EDT.

We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco!