Collaborations : Professor J. Morgan (postdoc advisor), D. Blank (Ph.D. student) and the Geomechanics group of Earth & Planetary Sciences Department of Rice University (Houston, USA).

Grants :

• National Foundation Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, Rice University, USA, 2019

• Department of Earth and Planetary Science Grants, Rice University, 2019-2021

Plain Language Summary of our main related paper "The role of Along Fault Dilatancy in Fault Slip Behavior" (Caniven et al., 2021), published in Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth.

Numerous research studies indicate that earthquakes may start progressively by a slow unlocking of the fault surface followed by fast slip acceleration. This first slow-slip stage could then define an early indicator of a devastating earthquake. However, not all slow-slip become fast, and some may simply stop. In this study, we use a numerical model to simulate faults that generate both slow earthquakes and fast earthquakes, sharing similar characteristics to natural cases. The main goal is to understand the conditions that allow slow events to turn into earthquakes, in contrast to those that cause slip to abort. Our results suggest that fault surface geometry and induced strain patterns play a key role. Slow events that initiate in large dilated regions might turn into earthquakes whereas the ones occurring in regions showing more complex strain pattern including contracted zones may simply stop as isolated inoffensive slow earthquakes. This work could have significant implications for the development of new monitoring systems devoted to anticipate the occurrence of destructive earthquakes.

We also developed a subduction megathrust model to investigate mechanisms that enhance slow slip via dynamic stress triggering Blank et al., (2021) in EPSL.

Find our related publications below and the publication list here.

• Caniven, Y., Morgan, J., Blank, D. (2021). The role of Along Fault Dilatancy in Fault Slip Behavior. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 126, e2021JB022310. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB022310

• Blank, D., Morgan, J., & Caniven, Y. (2021). Geometrically controlled slow slip enhanced by seismic waves: A mechanism for delayed triggering. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 554, 116695. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012821X20306397.