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Department of Geological Sciences Seminar/Webinar Series
Greg Hirth

Understanding earthquakes at the microscopic scale

Greg Hirth
Department of Geology and Geophysics
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
CSL 422 - 1:00pm



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5407226487756481278&hl=en

I will first review of how to relate rock strength determined from lab experiments to geological and geophysical observations - emphasizing apparent paradoxes and successes. I will then introduce why understanding earthquake mechanisms in the oceanic lithosphere can provide new insights into the rheological properties of fault zones, and present an experimental study on fault stability in which analysis of the micromechanics of friction provides justification for the extrapolation of the lab data to natural conditions. With this new insight, I will then return to the problem of relating the lab data to geophysical observations.

Experimental Fault

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