Nicholas (Nick) M Beeler
Nick Beeler is a scientist in the Earthquake Science Center.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 58
Near-fault velocity spectra from laboratory failures and their relation to natural ground motion
We compared near-fault velocity spectra recorded during laboratory experiments to that of natural earthquakes. We fractured crystalline rock samples at room temperature and intermediate confining pressure (50 MPa). Subsequent slip events were generated on the fracture surfaces under higher confinement (300 MPa). Velocity spectra from rock fracture resemble the inverse frequency (1/f) decay of natu
Authors
Nicholas M. Beeler, David A. Lockner, Brian D. Kilgore, Greg McClaskey
On the depth extent of co-seismic rupture
We investigate the implications of deformation experiments for the coseismic down‐dip extent of rupture in quasi‐dynamic, whole‐cycle earthquake models of a fault for which the depth of the transition between seismic and aseisimic fault slip depends on strain rate. The calculations use a dislocation fault model from Tse and Rice (1986) with a vertical strike‐slip orientation, mode III rupture, and
Authors
Nicholas M. Beeler, G. Hirth, T.E. Tullis, C. H. Webb
Constraints on friction, dilatancy, diffusivity, and effective stress from low-frequency earthquake rates on the deep San Andreas Fault
Families of recurring low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) within nonvolcanic tremor on the San Andreas Fault in central California are sensitive to tidal stresses. LFEs occur at all levels of the tides, are strongly correlated and in phase with the ~200 Pa shear stresses, and weakly and not systematically correlated with the ~2 kPa tidal normal stresses. We assume that LFEs are small sources that rep
Authors
Nicholas M. Beeler, Amanda Thomas, Roland Bürgmann, David R. Shelly
Conversion of wet glass to melt at lower seismogenic zone conditions: Implications for pseudotachylyte creep
Coseismic frictional melting and the production of quenched glass called pseudotachylyte is a recurring process during earthquakes. To investigate how glassy materials affect the postseismic strength and stability of faults, obsidian gouges were sheared under dry and wet conditions from 200°C to 300°C at ~150 MPa effective normal stress. Dry glass exhibited a brittle rheology at all conditions tes
Authors
Brooks P. Proctor, David A. Lockner, Jacob B. Lowenstern, Nicholas M. Beeler
Rock friction under variable normal stress
This study is to determine the detailed response of shear strength and other fault properties to changes in normal stress at room temperature using dry initially bare rock surfaces of granite at normal stresses between 5 and 7 MPa. Rapid normal stress changes result in gradual, approximately exponential changes in shear resistance with fault slip. The characteristic length of the exponential chang
Authors
Brian D. Kilgore, Nicholas M. Beeler, Julian C. Lozos, David Oglesby
The transition from frictional sliding to shear melting in laboratory stick-slip experiments
No abstract available
Authors
David A. Lockner, Brian D. Kilgore, Nicholas M. Beeler, Diane E. Moore
Earthquake source properties from instrumented laboratory stick-slip
Stick-slip experiments were performed to determine the influence of the testing apparatus on source properties, develop methods to relate stick-slip to natural earthquakes and examine the hypothesis of McGarr [2012] that the product of stiffness, k, and slip duration, Δt, is scale-independent and the same order as for earthquakes. The experiments use the double-direct shear geometry, Sierra White
Authors
Brian D. Kilgore, Arthur F. McGarr, Nicholas M. Beeler, David A. Lockner
Earthquake source properties from pseudotachylite
The motions radiated from an earthquake contain information that can be interpreted as displacements within the source and therefore related to stress drop. Except in a few notable cases, the source displacements can neither be easily related to the absolute stress level or fault strength, nor attributed to a particular physical mechanism. In contrast paleo-earthquakes recorded by exhumed pseudota
Authors
Nicholas M. Beeler, Giulio Di Toro, Stefan Nielsen
Gallery of melt textures developed in Westerly Granite during high-pressure triaxial friction experiments
IntroductionMelting occurred during stick-slip faulting of granite blocks sheared at room-dry, room-temperature conditions in a triaxial apparatus at 200–400 megapascals (MPa) confining pressure. Petrographic examinations of melt textures focused largely on the 400-MPa run products. This report presents an overview of the petrographic data collected on those samples, followed by brief descriptions
Authors
Diane E. Moore, David A. Lockner, Brian D. Kilgore, Nicholas M. Beeler
Effective stress, friction and deep crustal faulting
Studies of crustal faulting and rock friction invariably assume the effective normal stress that determines fault shear resistance during frictional sliding is the applied normal stress minus the pore pressure. Here we propose an expression for the effective stress coefficient αf at temperatures and stresses near the brittle-ductile transition (BDT) that depends on the percentage of solid-solid co
Authors
N.M. Beeler, Greg Hirth, Amanda M. Thomas, Roland Burgmann
The role of fluid pressure on frictional behavior at the base of the seismogenic zone
To characterize stress and deformation style at the base of the seismogenic zone, we investigate how the mechanical properties of fluid-rock systems respond to variations in temperature and strain rate. The role of fluids on the processes responsible for the brittle-ductile transition in quartz-rich rocks has not been explored at experimental conditions where the kinetic competition between microc
Authors
Greg Hirth, Nicholas M. Beeler
Earthquake forewarning in the Cascadia region
This report, prepared for the National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council (NEPEC), is intended as a step toward improving communications about earthquake hazards between information providers and users who coordinate emergency-response activities in the Cascadia region of the Pacific Northwest. NEPEC charged a subcommittee of scientists with writing this report about forewarnings of increase
Authors
Joan S. Gomberg, Brian F. Atwater, Nicholas M. Beeler, Paul Bodin, Earl Davis, Arthur Frankel, Gavin P. Hayes, Laura McConnell, Tim Melbourne, David H. Oppenheimer, John G. Parrish, Evelyn A. Roeloffs, Gary D. Rogers, Brian Sherrod, John Vidale, Timothy J. Walsh, Craig S. Weaver, Paul M. Whitmore
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 58
Near-fault velocity spectra from laboratory failures and their relation to natural ground motion
We compared near-fault velocity spectra recorded during laboratory experiments to that of natural earthquakes. We fractured crystalline rock samples at room temperature and intermediate confining pressure (50 MPa). Subsequent slip events were generated on the fracture surfaces under higher confinement (300 MPa). Velocity spectra from rock fracture resemble the inverse frequency (1/f) decay of natu
Authors
Nicholas M. Beeler, David A. Lockner, Brian D. Kilgore, Greg McClaskey
On the depth extent of co-seismic rupture
We investigate the implications of deformation experiments for the coseismic down‐dip extent of rupture in quasi‐dynamic, whole‐cycle earthquake models of a fault for which the depth of the transition between seismic and aseisimic fault slip depends on strain rate. The calculations use a dislocation fault model from Tse and Rice (1986) with a vertical strike‐slip orientation, mode III rupture, and
Authors
Nicholas M. Beeler, G. Hirth, T.E. Tullis, C. H. Webb
Constraints on friction, dilatancy, diffusivity, and effective stress from low-frequency earthquake rates on the deep San Andreas Fault
Families of recurring low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) within nonvolcanic tremor on the San Andreas Fault in central California are sensitive to tidal stresses. LFEs occur at all levels of the tides, are strongly correlated and in phase with the ~200 Pa shear stresses, and weakly and not systematically correlated with the ~2 kPa tidal normal stresses. We assume that LFEs are small sources that rep
Authors
Nicholas M. Beeler, Amanda Thomas, Roland Bürgmann, David R. Shelly
Conversion of wet glass to melt at lower seismogenic zone conditions: Implications for pseudotachylyte creep
Coseismic frictional melting and the production of quenched glass called pseudotachylyte is a recurring process during earthquakes. To investigate how glassy materials affect the postseismic strength and stability of faults, obsidian gouges were sheared under dry and wet conditions from 200°C to 300°C at ~150 MPa effective normal stress. Dry glass exhibited a brittle rheology at all conditions tes
Authors
Brooks P. Proctor, David A. Lockner, Jacob B. Lowenstern, Nicholas M. Beeler
Rock friction under variable normal stress
This study is to determine the detailed response of shear strength and other fault properties to changes in normal stress at room temperature using dry initially bare rock surfaces of granite at normal stresses between 5 and 7 MPa. Rapid normal stress changes result in gradual, approximately exponential changes in shear resistance with fault slip. The characteristic length of the exponential chang
Authors
Brian D. Kilgore, Nicholas M. Beeler, Julian C. Lozos, David Oglesby
The transition from frictional sliding to shear melting in laboratory stick-slip experiments
No abstract available
Authors
David A. Lockner, Brian D. Kilgore, Nicholas M. Beeler, Diane E. Moore
Earthquake source properties from instrumented laboratory stick-slip
Stick-slip experiments were performed to determine the influence of the testing apparatus on source properties, develop methods to relate stick-slip to natural earthquakes and examine the hypothesis of McGarr [2012] that the product of stiffness, k, and slip duration, Δt, is scale-independent and the same order as for earthquakes. The experiments use the double-direct shear geometry, Sierra White
Authors
Brian D. Kilgore, Arthur F. McGarr, Nicholas M. Beeler, David A. Lockner
Earthquake source properties from pseudotachylite
The motions radiated from an earthquake contain information that can be interpreted as displacements within the source and therefore related to stress drop. Except in a few notable cases, the source displacements can neither be easily related to the absolute stress level or fault strength, nor attributed to a particular physical mechanism. In contrast paleo-earthquakes recorded by exhumed pseudota
Authors
Nicholas M. Beeler, Giulio Di Toro, Stefan Nielsen
Gallery of melt textures developed in Westerly Granite during high-pressure triaxial friction experiments
IntroductionMelting occurred during stick-slip faulting of granite blocks sheared at room-dry, room-temperature conditions in a triaxial apparatus at 200–400 megapascals (MPa) confining pressure. Petrographic examinations of melt textures focused largely on the 400-MPa run products. This report presents an overview of the petrographic data collected on those samples, followed by brief descriptions
Authors
Diane E. Moore, David A. Lockner, Brian D. Kilgore, Nicholas M. Beeler
Effective stress, friction and deep crustal faulting
Studies of crustal faulting and rock friction invariably assume the effective normal stress that determines fault shear resistance during frictional sliding is the applied normal stress minus the pore pressure. Here we propose an expression for the effective stress coefficient αf at temperatures and stresses near the brittle-ductile transition (BDT) that depends on the percentage of solid-solid co
Authors
N.M. Beeler, Greg Hirth, Amanda M. Thomas, Roland Burgmann
The role of fluid pressure on frictional behavior at the base of the seismogenic zone
To characterize stress and deformation style at the base of the seismogenic zone, we investigate how the mechanical properties of fluid-rock systems respond to variations in temperature and strain rate. The role of fluids on the processes responsible for the brittle-ductile transition in quartz-rich rocks has not been explored at experimental conditions where the kinetic competition between microc
Authors
Greg Hirth, Nicholas M. Beeler
Earthquake forewarning in the Cascadia region
This report, prepared for the National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council (NEPEC), is intended as a step toward improving communications about earthquake hazards between information providers and users who coordinate emergency-response activities in the Cascadia region of the Pacific Northwest. NEPEC charged a subcommittee of scientists with writing this report about forewarnings of increase
Authors
Joan S. Gomberg, Brian F. Atwater, Nicholas M. Beeler, Paul Bodin, Earl Davis, Arthur Frankel, Gavin P. Hayes, Laura McConnell, Tim Melbourne, David H. Oppenheimer, John G. Parrish, Evelyn A. Roeloffs, Gary D. Rogers, Brian Sherrod, John Vidale, Timothy J. Walsh, Craig S. Weaver, Paul M. Whitmore