Yannick Caniven

• Dr.
• PostDoc Position at University of Oxford

Why do fast earthquakes accelerate dramatically while slow ones are not able to? In this study, we explore the physical origins of various types of events in a particle-based simulation of fault slip. Our model simulates a vertical crustal strike-slip fault in two dimensions, viewed from the top. We use an assemblage of about 14,000 particles, bond...

What controls the slip-rate and rupture speed of earthquakes and slow-earthquakes? Here, we address the question by exploring the origin of various types of events spontaneously generated in a pluri-kilometric 2D fault particle-based model. The goal is to characterize the scaling laws that emerge from the relationships between strain, stress and sl...

Detailed fieldwork, analyses including SEM and EBSD investigations, and dynamic inversion method are used to describe and propose a conceptual model for the formation of compactive faults related to burial in micritic lacustrine-palustrine limestones (Eocene, Pyrenean foreland basin, South of France). These faults are characterized by sinuous shape...

Earthquakes result from fast slip that occurs along a fault surface. Interestingly, numerous dense geodetic observations over the last two decades indicate that such dynamic slip may start by a gradual unlocking of the fault surface and related progressive slip acceleration. This first slow stage is of great interest, because it could define an ear...

Surface topography results from complex couplings and feedbacks between tectonics and surface processes. We combine analog and numerical modeling, sharing similar geometry and boundary conditions, to assess the topographic evolution of an alluvial fan crossed by an active thrust fault. This joint approach allows the calibration of critical paramete...

Fault damage zones strongly influence fluid flow and seismogenic behavior of faults and are thought to scale linearly with fault displacement until reaching a threshold thickness. Using analog modeling with different frictional layer thicknesses, we investigate damage zone dynamic evolution during normal fault growth. We show that experimental dama...

We have developed a scaled analog model of a subduction zone simulating seismic cycle deformation phases. Its rheology is based on multilayered visco‐elasto‐plastic materials to account for the mechanical behavior of a continental lithospheric plate overriding a subducting oceanic plate. The seismogenic zone displays unstable slip behavior, extendi...

Seismic waves generated during earthquakes induce transient stress changes in the crust. These ephemeral perturbations can trigger critically stressed asperities at remote distances, often with significant time delays. The physical mechanism that governs this phenomenon is not completely resolved. Numerical simulations of dynamic perturbations pass...

We explore processes that govern fault dynamics over the earthquake cycle time-scale using the discrete element method (DEM). Here, we especially investigate the effects of fault geometries on the mode of fault slip, focusing on the configurations that lead to slow-slip events and earthquakes. The model used here consists of a 2D cohesive assemblag...

In this study, we use numerical fault analogs to explore the contribution of dynamic stress changes to earthquake triggering. In nature, earthquakes are sometimes inferred to trigger one another at great distances. Although a wide range of evidence shows temporal correlation between causative and triggered earthquakes, the underlying physical proce...

We simulate earthquakes and a broad variability of slip events using a discret element model.

Talk about earthquake cycle analog modeling at the Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences Department of the Rice University - Keith-Weiss Geological Laboratory.

We have developed an experimental approach to complement numerical modeling techniques used to analyze available geological and geophysical observations and measurements of subduction earthquakes such as the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman or the 2011 Tohoku earthquakes. Main goal is to validate a kinematically and mechanically first-order scaled analogue mod...

We have developed an experimental approach to complement numerical modeling techniques used to analyze available geological and geophysical observations and measurements of subduction earthquakes such as the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman or the 2011 Tohoku earthquakes. Main goal is to validate a kinematically and mechanically first-order scaled analogue mod...

The study of earthquake cycle dynamics faces several limiting factors related to the difficulty to integrate the characteristic time scales of deformation processes that extend from seconds to thousands of years. To overcome part of these limitations, we have developed a new experimental approach allowing for the simulation of strike-slip fault and...

New insights from field studies.

Deformed rock volumes in fault zones are usually classified as two distinct zones, the Core Zone (CZ) and the Damage Zone (DZ). Theses CZ and DZ may have significant and different impacts on fluid flow in the crust, mainly because they constitute heterogeneities of permeability. In this project we caracterise the fault DZ in carbonate rocks for sev...

Description of supplementary materials and Supporting informations.

We use a strike-slip fault analog model to study experimentally the role played by along-fault non-uniform and asymmetric applied normal stress on both coseismic slip and long-term fault behavior. Our model is based on a visco-elasto-plastic multi-layered rheology that allows to produce several hundreds of scaled analog microquakes and associated s...

Even in well documented fault zone regions like California, 30% of the total displacement occurs off the main fault and large earthquakes have generated on unknown fault branches (e.g. 2010 Baja California earthquake). A severe issue is the determination of their location and estimation of their potential risk as well as proneness to rupture. To an...

The study of earthquake dynamics faces several limiting factors related to the difficulty to access the deep source of earthquake and to integrate the characteristic time scales of deformation processes that extend from seconds to thousands of years. To overcome part of these limitations and better constrain the role and couplings between kinematic...

Geophysical Research Abstracts. Vol. 17, EGU2015-15200, 2015

Nowadays, technological advances in satellite imagery measurements as well as the development of dense geodetic and seismologic networks allow for a detailed analysis of surface deformation associated with active fault seismic cycle. However, the study of earthquake dynamics faces several limiting factors related to the difficulty to access the dee...

Average seismic cycle duration extends from hundred to a few thousands years but available geodetic measurements, including trilateration, GPS, Insar and seismological data extend over less than one century. This short time observation scale renders difficult, then, to constrain the role of key parameters such as fault friction and geometry, crust...

Le cycle sismique s’étend de la centaine à quelques milliers d’années mais les mesures géodésiques et sismologiques s’étendent sur moins d’un siècle. Cette courte échelle de temps d’observation rend difficile la mise en évidence du rôle des paramètres sismotectoniques clefs qui contrôlent la dynamique des failles actives. Pour palier à ce problème...

The average seismic cycle duration extends from hundred to a few thousands years but geodetic measurements and seismological data extend over less than one century. This short time observation scale renders difficult to constrain the role of key parameters such as fault friction and geometry, crust rheology, stress and strain rate that control the...

The average seismic cycle duration extends from hundred to a few thousands years but geodetic measurements, including trilateration, GPS, Insar and seismological data extend over less than one century. This short time observation scale renders difficult, then, to constrain the role of key parameters such as fault friction and geometry, crust rheolo...