Marion Thomas’s research while affiliated with Sorbonne University and other places

Friction is resistance to motion that appears when two surfaces in contact slide against one another. Most phenomena associated with sliding friction can be understood from observations made by Leonardo da Vinci. In the brittle part of the crust, the deformation is essentially accommodated along faults in response to the tectonic plate movement in the earth's crust. A simple analogy to represent the behavior of faults on the Earth's surface is the “spring‐block slider” model. Until recently deformation in fault zones, in the brittle part of the crust, was attributed either to earthquakes or to the slow continuous slip during the inter‐seismic period or post‐seismic period. Advances in technology and methodology in the field of geodesy and in seismology have significantly improved our capacity to measure deformation rates and given us higher resolutions.