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Introduction
Education
May 2000 - July 2004
October 1993 - December 1999
Publications
Publications (137)
Along-strike seismotectonic behavior of subduction megathrusts feeds back into the forearc deformation as elastic and permanent deformation. However, whether and how short-term elastic deformation reflects long-term permanent deformation in the forearc and shapes the coastal region remains unclear. To evaluate the forearc deformation, we analyze th...
The interaction between the NE-SW striking Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) and the E-W oriented Yerrer-Tullu Wellel Volcano-tectonic lineament (YTVL) represents one of the least understood tectonic problems in the East African Rift System. Despite the numerous studies that have been conducted in the region, the following questions still remain to be answ...
Triaxial deformation is a general feature of continental tectonics, but its controls and the systematics of associated fault networks remain poorly understood. We present triaxial analog experiments mimicking crustal thinning resulting from distributed longitudinal extension and lateral shortening. Contemporary longitudinal extension and lateral sh...
Understanding the along-strike seismogenic behavior of the megathrusts is crucial to anticipate seismic hazards in the subduction zones. However, if and how the spatiotemporal frictional heterogeneity (high and low kinematic coupling) at depth feeds back into the upper-plate deformation pattern and how the upper-plate elastic signals and permanent...
Accurate assessment of the rate and state friction parameters of rocks is essential for producing realistic earthquake rupture scenarios and, in turn, for seismic hazard analysis. Those parameters can be directly measured on samples, or indirectly based on inversion of coseismic or postseismic slip evolution. However, both direct and indirect appro...
Understanding the along-strike seismogenic behavior of megathrusts is crucial to anticipating seismic hazards in subduction zones. However, if and how spatiotemporal frictional heterogeneity (high and low kinematic coupling) at depth feeds back into the upper-plate deformation pattern and how the upper-plate elastic signals and permanent records ma...
Analogue models are often used to model long-term geological processes such as mountain building or basin inversion. Most of these models use granular materials such as sand or glass beads to simulate the brittle behaviour of the crust. In granular material, deformation is localised in shear bands, which act as an analogue to natural fault zones an...
This dataset provides friction data from ring-shear tests on feldspar sand FS900S used for the simulation of brittle behaviour in crust- and lithosphere-scale analogue experiments at the Tectonic Modelling Laboratory of the University of Bern (Zwaan et al. in prep; Richetti et al. in prep). The materials have been characterized by means of internal...
Analogue models are commonly used to model long-term geological processes such as mountain building or basin inversion. The majority of these models use granular materials like sand or glass beads to simulate the brittle behaviour of the crust. In granular materials deformation is localized into shear bands that act as analogues to natural fault zo...
Plain Language Summary
Subduction zones, where one tectonic plate slides underneath the other, host the largest earthquakes on earth. Two plates with different physical properties define the upper and lower plates in the subduction zones. A frictional interaction at the interface between these plates prevents them from sliding and builds up elastic...
It has been recently demonstrated that Machine Learning (ML) can predict laboratory earthquakes. Here we propose a prediction framework that allows forecasting future surface velocity fields from past ones for analog experiments of megathrust seismic cycles. Using data from two types of experiments, we explore the prediction performances of multipl...
The Multi-scale Laboratories (MSL) are a network of European laboratories bringing together the scientific fields of analogue modeling, paleomagnetism, experimental rock and melt physics, geo- chemistry and microscopy. MSL is one of nine (see below) Thematic Core Services (TCS) of the European Plate Observing System (EPOS). The overarching goal of...
In recent years, machine learning has been used to predict earthquake-like failures in various laboratory experiments. The predictions of these approaches have been framed with both regression and classification. Labquakes prediction in direct shear experiments has been achieved by predicting the time to failure of the sample (regression). Similarl...
The behavior of the shallow portion of the subduction zone, which generates the largest earthquakes and devastating tsunamis, is still insufficiently constrained. Monitoring only a fraction of a single megathrust earthquake cycle and the offshore location of the source of these earthquakes are the foremost reasons for the insufficient understanding...
In the last decades, seismotectonic analog models have been developed to better understand many aspects of the seismic cycle. Differently from other lab‐quake experiments, seismotectonic models mimic the first order characteristics of the seismic cycle in a scaled fashion. Here we introduce Foamquake: A novel seismotectonic model with a granular fr...
Currently, it is unknown how seismic and aseismic slip influences the recurrence and magnitude of earthquakes. Modern seismic hazard assessment is therefore based on statistics combined with numerical simulations of fault slip and stress transfer. To improve the underlying statistical models we conduct low velocity shear experiments with glass micr...
Pre‐existing crustal structures are known to influence rifting, but the factors controlling their influence remain poorly understood. We present results of digital image correlation that allows for the surface strain analysis of a series of analog rifting experiments designed to test the influence of the size, orientation, depth, and geometry of pr...
This data set includes the results of digital image correlation of 35 brittle-viscous experiments on gravitational salt tectonics performed at the Tectonic Modelling Lab of the University of Rennes 1 (UR1). The experiments demonstrate the influence of basin geometry on gravity-driven salt tectonics. Detailed descriptions of the experiments can be f...
The factors controlling the selective reactivation of pre-existing crustal structures and strain localization process in natural rifts have been studied for decades but remain poorly understood. We present the results of surface strain analysis of a series of analogue rifting experiments designed to test the influence of the size, orientation, dept...
As a rifted margin starts to tilt due to thermal subsidence, evaporitic bodies can become unstable, initiating gravity-driven salt tectonics. Our understanding of such processes has greatly benefitted from tectonic modelling efforts, yet a topic that has however gotten limited attention so far is the influence of large-scale salt basin geometry on...
Plutons in crustal shear zones may exploit inherited structures, interfere with strain localizing or be deformed passively. To constrain the relative timing of such tectono-magmatic relationships in natural settings is not always straight-forward. We here present sandbox-type analogue model experiments simulating magma emplacement into simple and t...
Rock avalanches produce exceptionally long run-outs that correlate with their rock volume. This relationship has been attributed to the size-dependent dynamic lowering of the effective basal friction. However, it has also been observed that run-outs of rock avalanches with similar volumes can span several orders of magnitude, suggesting additional...
Granular materials are a useful analogue for the Earth's crust in laboratory models of deformation. Constraining their mechanical properties is critical for such model's scaling and interpretation. Much information exists about monomineralic granular materials, such as quartz sand, but the mechanical characteristics of bimineralic mixtures, such as...
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Plutons in crustal shear zones may exploit inherited structures, interfere with strain localizing or be deformed passively. To constrain the relative timing of such tectono-magmatic constellations in natural settings is not always straight-forward. We here present sandbox-type analogue model experiments simulating magma emplacement into simple and...
Granular materials are a useful analogue for the Earth’s crust in laboratory models of deformation. Constraining their mechanical properties is critical for such model’s scaling and interpretation. Much information exists about monomineralic granular materials, such as quartz sand, but the mechanical characteristics of bimineralic mixtures, such as...
Subduction megathrusts host the Earth’s greatest earthquakes as the 1960 Valdivia (Mw 9.5, Chile), the largest earthquake instrumentally recorded, and the recent 2004 Sumatra-Andaman (Mw 9.2, Indonesia), 2010 Maule (Mw 8.8, Chile), and 2011 Tohoku-Oki (Mw 9.1, Japan) earthquakes triggering devastating tsunamis and representing a major hazard to soc...
Rock avalanches display exceptionally long runouts, which are found to correlate with their volume and attributed to size dependent dynamic lowering of the effective basal friction. However, even for similar volumes, runouts are seen to span several orders of magnitude suggesting additional controlling factors. Here, we here analyse experiments wit...
Plain Language Summary
The largest earthquakes on the world generally occur at convergent plate boundaries in subduction zones where two tectonic plates meet, and they pose a destructive threat by generating severe ground motion and devastating tsunamis. The source of the earthquakes is mostly located offshore, while the underwater sources are stil...
Rock avalanches are large rockslides consisting of highly fragmented materials that display exceptionally long runouts, which are found to correlate with their volume. Such volume-dependent runouts are conventionally attributed to dynamic lowering of the effective basal friction. However, even for similar volumes, the runouts are seen to span sever...
In rift settings, extension rates often vary along strike, due to rotation about a vertical axis or Euler pole, yet tectonic modelers traditionally apply constant along-strike deformation rates. Here we compare rift development and propagation under traditional orthogonal extension versus rotational extension conditions.
The set-ups involve brittl...
This data set includes the results of digital image correlation of ten brittle-viscous experiments on crustal extension and four benchmark experiments performed at the Tectonic Modelling Lab of the University of Bern (UB). The experiments demonstrate the differences in rift development in orthogonal versus rotation extension. Detailed descriptions...
Subduction zones are monitored using space geodesy with increasing resolution, with the aim of better capturing the deformation accompanying the seismic cycle. Here, we investigate data characteristics that maximize the performance of a machine learning binary classifier predicting slip‐event imminence. We overcome the scarcity of recorded instance...
Meteorite impacts are recognized as a fundamental geological process of the solar system. Although large-scale impact cratering has been studied intensely, an outstanding problem concerns long-term crater modification, which operates on time scales of tens of thousands of years after impact. Localized deformation in the form of radial and concentri...
As a primary driving force, margin tilting is crucial for gravity-driven thin-skinned salt tectonics. We investigated how instant versus progressive margin tilting mechanisms influence salt tectonics using an analogue modeling setup where tilting rate could be controlled. Instant tilting resulted in initially high deformation rates, triggering wide...
This dataset provides friction data from ring-shear tests (RST) for a quartz sand used as standard analogue material for simulating brittle upper crustal rocks in the analogue laboratory of the Institute of Geophysics of the Czech Academy of Science (IGCAS) (Kratinová et al., 2006; Závada et al., 2009; Lehmann et al., 2017; Krýza et al., 2019). It...
This dataset provides friction data from ring-shear tests (RST) on natural and artificial granular mate-rials used for analogue modelling in the experimental laboratory of the Chengdu University of Technology (CDUT, China). Six samples, four types of quartz sands and two types of glass beads, have been characterized by means of friction coefficient...
Current models of gravitational tectonics on the structural styles of salt-influenced passive margins typically depict domains of upslope extension and corresponding downslope contraction separated by a mid-slope domain of translation that is rather undeformed. However, an undeformed translational domain is rarely observed in natural systems as ext...
This data set includes the results of digital image correlation of three experiments on gravitational tectonics at passive margins performed at the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam in the framework of EPOS transnational access activities in 2018. Detailed descriptions...
Tectonic faults display a range of slip behaviors including continuous and episodic slip covering rates of more than 10 orders of magnitude (m/s). The physical control of such kinematic observations remains ambiguous. To gain insight into the slip behavior of brittle faults we performed laboratory stick-slip experiments using a rock analogue, granu...
Gravitational failure drives thinskinned salt tectonics in passive margin salt basins where upslope extension is linked to downslope contraction. As the main driving mechanisms, the impact of margin tilting is crucial for the structural and kinematic evolution of supra-salt cover deformation. However, the influences of tilting rate on thinskinned s...
Passive margins underlain by a weak salt detachment are partitioned into kinematically linked domains of upslope extension and downslope contraction. Typical deformation structures in the extensional domain are rafts, reactive diapirs and rollovers, whereas folds, thrust and squeezed diapirs occur in the contractional domain. While previous
studies...
The magnitude of great subduction megathrust earthquakes is controlled mainly by the number of adjacent asperities failing synchronously and the resulting rupture length. Here we investigate experimentally the long‐term recurrence behavior of a pair of asperities coupled by static stress transfer over hundreds of seismic cycles. We statistically an...
Plain Language Summary
Large and devastating subduction earthquakes, such as the 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku‐oki earthquake (Japan), are currently considered unpredictable. Scientists lack a long enough seismic catalog that is necessary for drawing statistical insights and developing predictions. For this reason, we simulate tens of earthquakes using...
Analog models of earthquakes and seismic cycles are characterized by strong variations in strain rate: from slow interseismic loading to fast coseismic release of elastic energy. Deformation rates vary accordingly from micrometer per second (e.g., plate tectonic motion) to meter per second (e.g., rupture propagation). Deformation values are very sm...
Current gravitational tectonics models illustrating the structural style of passive margin salt basins typically have domains of upslope extension and corresponding downslope contraction, separated by a domain of rather undeformed mid-slope translation. However, such a translational domain is rarely observed in natural systems where extensional and...
This dataset provides friction data from ring-shear tests (RST) for a quartz sand (type “G23”). This material is used in various types of analogue experiments in the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam for simulating brittle rocks in the upper crust (e,g. Kenkmann et al.,...
This dataset provides friction data from ring-shear tests (RST) for a quartz sand (“G12”). This material is used in various types of analogue experiments in the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam for simulating brittle rocks in the upper crust. The material has been char...
This dataset provides internal and basal (wall) friction data from ring-shear tests (RST) on a quartz sand material that has been used in tectonic experiments in Zwaan et al. (2016, 2017), Zwaan and Scheurs (2017) and in the Tectonic Modelling Lab of the University of Bern (CH) as an analogue for brittle layers in the crust or lithosphere. The mate...
Postseismic displacements following great subduction earthquakes show significant long‐wavelength and time‐dependent patterns caused primarily by transient viscoelastic relaxation processes occurring broadly at depth. However, the Earth's viscosity structure and time‐dependent variations are still poorly understood, especially in the years immediat...
Analogue models, help understanding geological processes, in particular deformational ones. However, standard procedures such as surface scanning (at any time) and sectioning at the end of the experiments represent 2D approaches for the analysis of deformation structures. The application of CT scanning techniques helps understanding deformation pat...
Analog sandbox experiments are a widely used method to investigate tectonic processes that cannot be resolved from natural data alone, such as strain localization and the formation of fault zones. Despite this, it is still unclear, to which extent the dynamics of strain localization and fault zone formation seen in sandbox experiments can be extrap...
The release of stress in the lithosphere along active faults shows a wide range of behaviors spanning several spatial and temporal scales. It ranges from short-term localized slip via aseismic slip transients to long-term distributed slip along large fault zones. A single fault can show several of these behaviors in a complementary manner often syn...
The size of great subduction megathrust earthquakes is controlled mainly by the number of adjacent asperities failing synchronously and the resulting rupture length. Here we investigate experimentally the long-term recurrence behavior of a pair of asperities coupled by quasi-static stress transfer over hundreds of seismic cycles. We statistically a...
Analogue sandbox experiments have been used for a long time to understand tectonic processes, because they facilitate detailed measurements of deformation at a spatio-temporal resolution unachievable from natural data. Despite this long history, force measurements to further characterise the mechanical evolution in analogue sandbox experiments have...
The majority of the largest subduction megathrust earthquakes share the common characteristic of rupturing more than one asperity along strike of the margin. Understanding the factors that control coseismic failure of multiple asperities, and thus maximum magnitude, is central for seismic hazard assessment. To investigate the role of asperities siz...
Earth deformation is a multi-scale process ranging from seconds (seismic deformation) to millions of years (tectonic deformation). Bridging short- and long-term deformation and developing seismotectonic models has been a challenge in experimental tectonics for more than a century. Since the formulation of Reid's elastic rebound theory 100 years ago...
The southwestern part of the Dolomites in Northern Italy has undergone a short-lived Ladinian (Middle Triassic) tectono-magmatic event, forming a series of significant magmatic features. These intrusive bodies deformed and metamorphosed the Permo-Triassic carbonate sedimentary framework. In this study we focus on the tectonomagmatic evolution of th...
Postseismic surface deformation associated with great subduction earthquakes is controlled by asthenosphere rheology, frictional properties of the fault, and structural complexity. Here, by modeling GPS displacements in the six years following the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule earthquake in Chile, we investigate the impact of heterogeneous viscosity distributi...
Analog modeling of tectonic processes is a rather mature geoscientific tool with a century-old tradition. With the advent of high resolution monitoring techniques and accurate characterization of the rock analog material rheology it has transformed from a tool for qualitative testing of concepts to a quantitative simulation technique. Today it is c...
Since the formulation of Reid’s elastic rebound theory 100 years ago laboratory mechanical models combining frictional and elastic elements have joined the forefront of the research on the dynamics of earthquakes. In the last decade, with the advent of high resolution monitoring techniques and new rock analogue materials, laboratory earthquake expe...
