Experimental study of the seismic cycle: study of the spatio-temporal evolution of a landslide along a fault

The seismic cycle describes theEvolution of theaccumulation and relaxation of stresses in fault zones over time. While theelastic energy saccumulates under theEffect of tectonic stresses, it can be released either by stable creep, or by slow (seismic) sliding, or by rapid (seismic) sliding (Ben-Zion and Sammis, 2003). The physical mechanisms and the conditions controlling these different sliding modes are still poorly identified, as are the spatial distribution and the interactions between the so-called seismic and asismic zones.

lobjective of this thesis is to develop new experiences at theInterface between classical rock mechanics and analogue modeling, in order to overcome the limitations ofspatial scale inherent in traditional rock mechanics approaches, which generally rely on samples oforder of a square centimeter (or smaller), without allowing to capture the spatial complexity ofa slip interface.

This will be made possible thanks to the large-scale triaxial device developed within theGeoreSources team of theUniversity of Lorraine (Dimitri apparatus; Faure-Catteloin et al., 2024). This device makes it possible to carry out experiments on samples of metric size. We plan to conduct experiments on both natural materials and analogue materials, in order toExplore theSpatial and temporal evolution of sliding on large-scale interfaces.