Rupture Termination in Laboratory-Generated Earthquakes

Abstract

Earthquakes are dynamic rupture events that initiate, propagate, and terminate on faults within the Earth's crust. Understanding rupture termination is essential for accurately estimating the maximum magnitude earthquake a region might experience. We study termination on sequences of M − 2.5 earthquakes that rupture a 3-m granite laboratory sample. At this large scale, nucleation, propagation, and termination are either completely or partially confined within the sample–unique observations for experiments on rock. We compare measured termination locations to estimates from a fracture mechanics-based model to quantify the fracture energy of the laboratory earthquakes, which compare well with estimates from small natural quakes. Our results provide a mathematical framework that links micrometer-scale friction parameters to meter-scale earthquake mechanics, shows that a 3-m slab of granite can behave similar to a 200-mm sheet of glassy polymer, and demonstrates how small events can prime a fault for larger, damaging ones.