A. Aoudia, ICTP
Lesson number 16 (A. Aoudia)
Physics of faults
In this lesson the teacher describes the physics of faults and how earthquake complexity arises from the brittle response of the lithosphere to forces generated within the Earth’s interior. In this framework, friction plays an important role. Friction laws are phenomenological because of the complex interactions of surface contacts. Friction laws describe the phenomenon of friction, not the process responsible for the observed behaviour.