Seismic and Aseismic Deformation in the Brittle Crust

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 979

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Academia Sinica, Institute of Earth Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan
Interests: crustal deformation; borehole strainmeter data processing; seismology; natural hazards; applied geophysics

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Guest Editor
Institute of Physics of the Earth’s Interior and Geohazards, UNESCO Chair on Solid Earth Physics and Geohazards Risk Reduction, Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Center (HMURC), 73133 Chania, Greece
Interests: geology exploration; geology seismics exploration; geophysics; tectonics plate; tectonics; structural geology; remote sensing; structural analysis; spatial analysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Brittle deformation represents the primary mode of deformation of Earth's crust. Recent observations suggest that seismogenic faults accommodate tectonic plate motion through a wide variety of slip modes, ranging from earthquakes to slow aseismic slip. Aseismic slip releases elastic energy slowly without radiating seismic waves and plays an important role in the initiation, propagation, and arrest of large earthquakes. Other factors, such as the presence of fluids, stress, and fault material heterogeneities, also play an important role in the fault mechanics. Understanding the physics and the energy partitioning between seismic and aseismic slip on faults at all scales and in various tectonic settings is essential to assess their impact on the seismic cycle. To improve our comprehension of seismic and aseismic deformation in the brittle crust, we invite contributions that explore the themes described herein through geophysical and geological observations, laboratory experiments, numerical modeling, and multidisciplinary approaches.

Dr. Alexandre Canitano
Dr. Andreas Karakonstantis
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • brittle deformation
  • seismic–aseismic slip partitioning
  • stress interactions
  • pore fluid diffusion
  • fault rheology

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 9566 KiB  
Article
Scaling Law Analysis and Aftershock Spatiotemporal Evolution of the Three Strongest Earthquakes in the Ionian Sea During the Period 2014–2019
by Kyriaki Pavlou, Georgios Michas and Filippos Vallianatos
Geosciences 2025, 15(3), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences15030084 - 1 Mar 2025
Viewed by 355
Abstract
The observed scaling properties in the three aftershock sequences of the recent strong earthquakes of magnitudes Mw 6.1, Mw 6.4 and Mw 6.7, which occurred in the Ionian island region on the 26 January 2014 (onshore Cephalonia Island), 17 November [...] Read more.
The observed scaling properties in the three aftershock sequences of the recent strong earthquakes of magnitudes Mw 6.1, Mw 6.4 and Mw 6.7, which occurred in the Ionian island region on the 26 January 2014 (onshore Cephalonia Island), 17 November 2015 (Lefkada Island) and 25 October 2018 (offshore Zakynthos Island), respectively, are presented. In the analysis, the frequency–magnitude distributions in terms of the Gutenberg–Richter scaling relationship are studied, along with the temporal evolution of the aftershock sequences, as described by the Omori–Utsu formula. The processing of interevent times distribution, based on non-extensive statistical physics, indicates a system in an anomalous equilibrium with long-range interactions and a cross over behavior from anomalous to normal statistical mechanics for greater interevent times. A discussion of this cross over behavior is given for all aftershock sequences in terms of superstatistics. Moreover, the common value of the Tsallis entropic parameter that was obtained suggests that aftershock sequences are systems with very low degrees of freedom. Finally, a scaling of the migration of the aftershock zones as a function of the logarithm of time is discussed regarding the rate strengthening rheology that governs the evolution of the afterslip process. Our results contribute to the understanding of the spatiotemporal evolution of aftershocks using a first principles approach based on non extensive statistical physics suggesting that this view could describe the process within a universal view. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Seismic and Aseismic Deformation in the Brittle Crust)
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