Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
AGU Fall Meeting 2014
San Francisco, United States

insu-01119759
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01119759

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Nature Publishing Group
Résumé : International audience
Assessing seismic hazards remains one of the most challenging scientific issues in Earthsciences. Deep tectonic processes are classically considered as the only persistentmechanism driving the stress loading of active faults over a seismic cycle. Here we show via amechanical model that erosion also significantly influences the stress loading of thrust faultsat the timescale of a seismic cycle. Indeed, erosion rates of about B0.1–20mmyr1, asdocumented in Taiwan and in other active compressional orogens, can raise the Coulombstress by B0.1–10 bar on the nearby thrust faults over the inter-seismic phase. Masstransfers induced by surface processes in general, during continuous or short-lived andintense events, represent a prominent mechanism for inter-seismic stress loading offaults near the surface. Such stresses are probably sufficient to trigger shallow seismicity orpromote the rupture of deep continental earthquakes up to the surface.
ISSN: 2041-1723

insu-01087103
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01087103
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01087103/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01087103/file/Steer2014_NatureComm_accepted.pdf
DOI : 10.1038/ncomms6564

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières
Résumé : National audience
Les tremblements de Terre sont sans doute l’un des phénomènes les plus catastrophiques associés à la dynamique de notre planète. Leur occurrence peut être associée d’une part au chargement lent et progressif des failles dû au mouvement des plaques tectoniques, mais également à la proximité d’autres séismes qui peuvent localement provoquer une déstabilisation du milieu. Les séismes sont classiquement interprétés dans le cadre de la théorie du cycle sismique (Fig. 1). La période asismique, correspondant au chargement séculaire des contraintes sur le plan des failles, est appelée période inter-sismique. Sa durée, entre 50 et 1000 ans, dépend du contexte géodynamique et notamment de la vitesse de chargement. La phase co-sismique correspond au séisme, i.e. à la phase de nucléation et de propagation de la rupture sismique. La période de temps associée est extrêmement courte et varie suivant les séismes entre quelques secondes à plusieurs minutes pour les méga-tremblements de terre comme celui de Sumatra en 2004 ou plus récemment celui du Japon en 2011. Enfin, suite à la rupture sismique, on considère une phase post-sismique qui correspond à un réajustement mécanique rapide du milieu qui peut s’effectuer sur plusieurs semaines, mois ou même années. La courte échelle de temps des observations sismologiques ou géodésiques (<100 ans) par rapport à la durée d’un cycle sismique (plusieurs centaines d’années) est un facteur limitant. Ainsi, aucun cycle sismique complet n’a pour l’instant pu être documenté.
ISSN: 0292-8477

insu-00913121
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00913121
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00913121/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00913121/file/geochronique_cattinetal.pdf

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Geodynamics and Environment in East Asia Symposium (GEEA Meeting)
Hualien, Taiwan

insu-01119753
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01119753

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Geodynamics and Environment in East Asia Symposium (GEEA Meeting)
Hualien, Taiwan

insu-01119754
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01119754

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
We analyze the kinematics of fault tip folding at the front of a fold-and-thrust wedge using a sandbox experiment. The analog model consists of sand layers intercalated with low-friction glass bead layers, deposited in a glass-sided experimental device and with a total thickness h = 4.8 cm. A computerized mobile backstop induces progressive horizontal shortening of the sand layers and therefore thrust fault propagation. Active deformation at the tip of the forward propagating basal décollement is monitored along the cross section with a high-resolution CCD camera, and the displacement field between pairs of images is measured from the optical flow technique. In the early stage, when cumulative shortening is less than about h/10, slip along the décollement tapers gradually to zero and the displacement gradient is absorbed by distributed deformation of the overlying medium. In this stage of detachment tip folding, horizontal displacements decrease linearly with distance toward the foreland. Vertical displacements reflect a nearly symmetrical mode of folding, with displacements varying linearly between relatively well defined axial surfaces. When the cumulative slip on the décollement exceeds about h/10, deformation tends to localize on a few discrete shear bands at the front of the system, until shortening exceeds h/8 and deformation gets fully localized on a single emergent frontal ramp. The fault geometry subsequently evolves to a sigmoid shape and the hanging wall deforms by simple shear as it overthrusts the flat ramp system. As long as strain localization is not fully established, the sand layers experience a combination of thickening and horizontal shortening, which induces gradual limb rotation. The observed kinematics can be reduced to simple analytical expressions that can be used to restore fault tip folds, relate finite deformation to incremental folding, and derive shortening rates from deformed geomorphic markers or growth strata.
ISSN: 2169-9313

hal-00138061
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00138061
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00138061/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00138061/file/Bernard_et_al-2007-Journalsur Geophysical_Research__Solid_Earth_%281978-2012%29.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2005JB004149

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Extreme rainfall events can trigger numerous landslides in mountainous areas and a prolonged increase of river sediment load. The resulting mass transfer at the Earth surface in turn induces stress changes at depth, which could be sufficient to trigger shallow earthquakes. The 2009 Morakot typhoon represents a good case study as it delivered 3 m of precipitation in 3 days and caused some of the most intense erosion ever recorded. Analysis of seismicity time-series before and after the Morakot typhoon reveals a systematic increase of shallow (i.e. 0-15 km of depth) earthquake frequency in the vicinity of the areas displaying a high spatial density of landslides. This step-like increase in frequency lasts for at least 2-3 years and does not follow an Omori-type aftershock sequence. Rather, it is associated to a step change of the Gutenberg-Richter b-value of the earthquake catalog. Both changes occurred in mountainous areas of southwest Taiwan, where typhoon Morakot caused extensive landsliding. These spatial and temporal correlations strongly suggest a causal relationship between the Morakot-triggered landslides and the increase of earthquake frequency and their associated b-value. We propose that the progressive removal of landslide materials from the steep mountain landscape by river sediment transport acts as an approximately constant increase of the stress rate with respect to pre-typhoon conditions, and that this in turn causes a step-wise increase in earthquake frequency. To test this hypothesis, we investigate the response of a rate-and-state fault to stress changes using a 2-D continuum elasto-dynamic model. Consistent with the results of Ader et al. (2013), our preliminary results show a step-like increase of earthquake frequency in response to a step-like decrease of the fault normal stress. We also investigate the sensitivity of the amplitude and time-scale of the earthquake frequency increase to the amplitude of the normal stress change and to rheological parameters. Our study offers new insights on the potential influence of extreme erosional events on the short-time scale dynamics of faults and earthquakes.
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2016
San Francisco, United States

insu-01416987
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01416987