Research Focus
My research develops advanced tools to observe and understand physical processes that control the initiation, propagation, and arrest of earthquakes. These tools help us to clarify patterns, enabling systematic testing to isolate key features of the failure process that are most crucial and need to be considered. Understanding the fundamental processes that affect rock deformation is essential to produce more accurate physics-based models, which can improve forecasting and minimize hazard and risk. The group’s work is closely linked to geophysical research that enables application such as geothermal energy and carbon sequestration while contributing to the broader understanding of earthquakes and faulting.
Earthquake Mechanics and Rock Physics
Our understanding of earthquakes has been dramatically impacted due to theoretical development made in the lab. Findings initially suggested that rocks produce “stable sliding” or a “stick-slip” response where the latter is considered analogous to an earthquake. In the recent decades, observations in nature have shown that crustal deformation associated to earthquakes span time scales from mere seconds to slow preparatory processes that last months to years. These observations have pushed me to revisit traditional laboratory experiments with innovative technologies that can investigate deformation that switches from slow and broad, to fast and localized in a realistic simulated and controlled environments. With our improved observations we are beginning to develop new theoretical considerations and validate cutting-edge numerical models that are able to explain the complex spectra of deformation.
Mechanics of Porous Media
The Earth's subsurface is comprised of fractured porous media that exhibit complex physical coupling. My research investigates the effects of fluids, temperatures and mechanical loads on the response of porous media. We utilise advanced experimental technologies and techniques in conjunction with numerical modelling to gain the most comprehensive understanding of rock behaviour in terms of its thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical (THMC) models. Assessing how material heterogeneity influences different couplings is an important aspect of this research stream.
Sensors and Signal Interpretation
Sensors extend our perception of experiments and translate the unseen into the knowable. My focus is on using well understood instruments to maximise the information we get from rocks. Working with the Rock Physics and Mechanics Laboratory, we have developed a workflow to produce our own absolutely calibrated acoustic emission sensors, which provide a versatile tool for studying rocks in different experimental configurations. We have also pioneered the use of fibre optic distributed strain sensing in tandem with these acoustic emission sensors. This pairing is currently providing state-of-the-art datasets for the latest theoretical and numerical models investigating earthquake preparation and strain localisation.
Upscaling our Understanding
The ongoing laboratory research is leading to significant advances in our understanding of earthquakes and faulting. However, upscaling remains non-trivial and poorly understood. I am able to look at this issue through the ERC Fault Activation and Earthquake Rupture project for which I am currently a Laboratory Working Group leader. This position allows me to collaborate with world-class researchers with differing levels of expertise and provides me with a framework to directly test numerical and theoretical developments in the state-of-the-art Bedretto Underground Laboratory for Geoenergies and Geosciences. This framework provides me with a unique opportunity for concurrent model development and an ability to identify which components of the models scale robustly from centimetres to hectometres.
