Seismo Lab Brown Bag Seminar

The evolution of oceanic plates is a key part of the Wilson cycle. Starting with the birth at mid-ocean ridges, oceanic plates are controlled by thermal, rheological, and chemical conditions, followed by plate maturation as it ages and cools while crossing the seafloor, and many earthquakes are detected along spreading centers and transform faults. In order to understand the long-term deformation and short-term earthquakes of oceanic plates, 3D self-consistent magmatic-thermomechanical geodynamic models and 3D physics-based rate-, state- and temperature-dependent seismic cycle models are employed, respectively. Through 3D geodynamic models with both brittle/plastic strain weakening and grain size evolution, I systemically investigate the magmatic segmentation along the spreading center and the faulting patterns along the spreading direction. Using 3D seismic cycle models with temperature effects, I explore how composition and thermal strengthening control the formation of the barrier zone and the earthquake rupture process at oceanic transform faults. The findings could provide helpful insights into the physics-based predictive modeling of faulting processes and the feedback between long-term tectonic deformation and the short-term seismic cycle.