Publications related to Subduction

A Depth-Averaged Material Point Method for Shallow Landslides: Applications to Snow Slab Avalanche Release

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Lars Kristoffer Uhlen Blatny, Bertil Trottet, Denis Aloyse Joseph Steffen, Louis Marie Cédric Guillet

Shallow landslides pose a significant threat to people and infrastructure. Despite significant progress in the understanding of such phenomena, the evaluation of the size of the landslide release zone, a crucial input for risk assessment, still remains a c ...

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION2023

New tools for phase segmentation and denoising of analytical STEM data for enhanced chemical sensitivity, applied to Earth mantle research

Hui Chen

This thesis is dedicated to developing innovative methodologies that improve elemental quantification in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS). The primary motivation stems from a geochemistry pr ...

EPFL2023

Propagation of planar three-dimensional buoyant hydraulic fractures

Andreas Möri

Hydraulic fractures are driven by an internal fluid pressure exceeding the minimum compressive stress, propagating in a direction perpendicular to the latter. This class of tensile fractures has gained interest over the last fifty years due to the developm ...

EPFL2023

The influence of water-saturation on the strength of volcanic rocks and the stability of lava domes

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Michael Heap

The rocks forming a volcanic edifice or dome are typically saturated or partially-saturated with water. However, most experiments aimed at better understanding the mechanical behaviour of volcanic rocks have been performed on dry samples, and therefore mos ...

2023

Single-Well Pore Pressure Preconditioning for Enhanced Geothermal System Stimulation

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Mathias Alexandre David Lebihain, Barnaby Padraig Fryer

The stress state is an important parameter in terms of both earthquake nucleation and rupture. Here, a new stimulation technique is proposed for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGSs), which have previously been burdened with a number of high-profile incidence ...

2023

Using video detection of snow surface movements to estimate weak layer crack propagation speeds

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Bertil Trottet, Alec van Herwijnen

Dry-snow slab avalanches release due to crack propagation in a weak snow layer under a cohesive snow slab. Crack propagation speeds can provide insights into the potential size of avalanches and inform fracture and avalanche release models. Despite their i ...

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS2023

Electromagnetic actuator design for distributed stiffness

Jamie Paik, Fabio Zuliani

Origami robots characterized by rigid plates linked together with flexible joints have inherent compliance and large deformations. Their low-profile design and folding mechanical transmissions provide substantial force and torque, especially for wearables ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2022

Deformation capacity evaluation for flat slab seismic design

Aurelio Muttoni, Lorenzo Martinelli, António Manuel Pinho Ramos, Andri Setiawan

In flat-slab frames, which are typically designed as secondary seismic structures, the shear failure of the slab around the column (punching failure) is typically the governing failure mode which limits the deformation capacity and can potentially lead to ...

SPRINGER2022

The Role of the Composite Floor System and Framing Action in the Seismic Performance of Composite Steel Moment-Resisting Frames

Hammad El Jisr

With the advent of performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE), the need for reliable prediction of earthquake-induced collapse of structures is essential. Despite the significant progress that has been made towards this goal, there are several hurdles ...

EPFL2022

Composition and Pressure Effects on Partitioning of Ferrous Iron in Iron-Rich Lower Mantle Heterogeneities

Philippe Gillet, Marco Cantoni, James Badro, Susannah McGregor Dorfman, Farhang Nabiei, Charles-Edouard Boukaré

Both seismic observations of dense low shear velocity regions and models of magma ocean crystallization and mantle dynamics support enrichment of iron in Earth’s lowermost mantle. Physical properties of iron-rich lower mantle heterogeneities in the modern ...

2021

The Effects of Planetary and Stellar Parameters on Brittle Lithospheric Thickness

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Michael Heap

The thicknesss of the brittle lithosphere—the outer portion of a planetary body that fails via fracturing— plays a key role in the geological processes of that body. The properties of both a planet and its host star can influence that thickness, and the po ...

2021

Earthquake Nucleation along Faults with Heterogeneous Weakening Rate

Jean-François Molinari, Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Thibault Didier Roch, Mathias Alexandre David Lebihain

The transition from quasi-static slip growth to dynamic rupture propagation constitutes one possible scenario to describe earthquake nucleation. If this transition is rather well understood for homogeneous faults, how the friction properties of multiscale ...

2021

Experimental Evaluation of Steel Columns under Seismic Hazard-Consistent Collapse Loading Protocols

Dimitrios Lignos

This paper presents results from 21 large-scale experiments on steel columns that examined their collapse behavior as related to steel moment resisting frames (MRFs). The test specimens included wide-flange and square hollow structural shapes (HSS) and wer ...

2021

Origin of the Co‐Seismic Variations of Elastic Properties in the Crust: Insight From the Laboratory

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, François Xavier Thibault Passelègue, Mateo Alejandro Acosta, Federica Paglialunga

Seismological observations highlighted that earthquakes are often followed by changes in elastic properties around the fault zone. Here, we studied the origin of these variations using stick-slip experiments on saw-cut granite samples presenting different ...

2021

Three-dimensional fluid-driven stable frictional ruptures

Brice Tanguy Alphonse Lecampion, Alexis Alejandro Sáez Uribe

We investigate the quasi-static growth of a fluid-driven frictional shear crack that propagates in mixed mode (II+III) on a planar fault interface that separates two identical half-spaces of a three-dimensional solid. The fault interface is characterized b ...

2022

The Influence of Loading Path on Fault Reactivation:a Laboratory Perspective

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, Carolina Giorgetti

The loading path the fault experiences is often neglected when evaluating its potential for reactivation and the related seismic risk. However, stress history affects fault zone compaction and dilation, and thus its mechanics. Therefore, in incohesive faul ...

2021

Effects of composition and pressure on electronic states of iron in bridgmanite

Arnaud Magrez, Philippe Gillet, Susannah McGregor Dorfman

Electronic states of iron in the lower mantle's dominant mineral, (Mg,Fe,Al)(Fe,Al,Si)O-3 bridgmanite, control physical properties of the mantle including density, elasticity, and electrical and thermal conductivity. However, the determination of electroni ...

MINERALOGICAL SOC AMER2020

Blocked radiative heat transport in the hot pyrolitic lower mantle

James Badro, Farhang Nabiei, Hélène Marie Piet

The heat flux across the core-mantle boundary (Q(CMB)) is the key parameter to understand the Earth's thermal history and evolution. Mineralogical constraints of the Q(CMB) require deciphering contributions of the lattice and radiative components to the th ...

ELSEVIER2020

Origin of High-Frequency Radiation During Laboratory Earthquakes

François Xavier Thibault Passelègue

We monitor dynamic rupture propagation during laboratory stick-slip experiments performed on saw-cut Westerly granite under upper crustal conditions (10-90 MPa). Spectral analysis of high-frequency acoustic waveforms provided evidence that energy radiation ...

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION2019

Can Precursory Moment Release Scale With Earthquake Magnitude? A View From the Laboratory

Marie Estelle Solange Violay, François Xavier Thibault Passelègue, Mateo Alejandro Acosta

Today, earthquake precursors remain debated. While precursory slow slip is an important feature of earthquake nucleation, foreshock sequences are not always observed, and their temporal evolution remains poorly constrained. We report on laboratory earthqua ...

2019