The effects of stress perturbations on friction are crucial for understanding earthquake triggering. Previous experimental studies have primarily been conducted at room temperature, where fault gouge materials typically exhibit velocity-strengthening and frictionally stable behaviour. In this study, we investigate how variations in effective normal stress ((Formula presented.)) influence fault (in-)stability by performing (Formula presented.) -perturbation experiments on simulated carbonate fault gouges under fluid-drained, hydrothermal conditions. Our results indicate that in the velocity-neutral or -weakening regime, perturbing (Formula presented.) can reinforce frictional instability, leading to accelerated slow slips or enhanced stick-slip events. This effect is particularly pronounced when the excitation period ((Formula presented.)) approaches or exceeds the characteristic recurrence period ((Formula presented.)) associated with pre-perturbation instabilities. Stress drops of the resulting events can have larger amplitudes than expected from quasi-steady-state. When cyclic perturbations are imposed, slip events tend to synchronize at specific phases when (Formula presented.) is close to (Formula presented.) — notably between 0.5π and 1π in radian, corresponding to maximum destressing rate and minimum (Formula presented.), respectively. Additionally, short-period ((Formula presented.)) perturbations can induce significant shear stress reduction (or fault weakening), with magnitudes comparable to the stress drops from stick slips, yet they are surprisingly associated with acoustically quiet slow slip, suggesting a stabilizing effect. These findings underscore the critical role of perturbation period in controlling fault response. In the context of induced seismicity, our results imply that cyclic or monotonic fluid injections should be carefully designed, considering both perturbation amplitude and period. Properly turned cyclic injections could potentially mitigate seismic risk by promoting quiet, slow slip over seismic fault slip.

Fault normal stress (σ_n) changes dynamically during earthquakes. However, the impact of these changes on fault strength is poorly understood. We explore the effects of rapidly varying σ_n by conducting rotary-shear experiments on simulated fault gouges at 1 μm/s, under well-drained, hydrothermal conditions. Our results show both elastic and anelastic (time-dependent but recoverable) changes in gouge layer thickness in response to step changes and sinusoidal oscillations in σ_n. In particular, we observe dilation associated with marked weakening during ongoing σ_n-oscillations at frequencies >0.1 Hz. Moreover, recovery of shear stress after such oscillations is accompanied by transient (anelastic) compaction. We propose a microphysically based friction model that explains most of the observations made, including the effects of temperature and step versus sinusoidal perturbation modes. Our results highlight that σ_n-oscillations above a specific frequency threshold, controlled by the loading regime and frictional properties of the fault, may enhance seismic hazards.

Rock materials show dramatic dynamic weakening in large-displacement (m), high-velocity (∼1 m/s) friction experiments, providing a mechanism for the generation of large, natural earthquakes. However, whether such weakening occurs during induced M3-4 earthquakes (dm displacements) is unknown. We performed rotary-shear experiments on simulated fault gouges prepared from the source-, reservoir- and caprock formations present in the seismogenic Groningen gas field (Netherlands). Water-saturated gouges were subjected to a slip pulse reaching a peak circumferential velocity of 1.2–1.7 m/s and total displacements of 13–20 cm, at 2.5–20 MPa normal stress. The results show 22%–81% dynamic weakening within 5–12 cm of slip, depending on normal stress and gouge composition. At 20 MPa normal stress, dynamic weakening from peak friction coefficients of 0.4–0.9 to 0.19–0.27 was observed, probably through thermal pressurization. We infer that similar effects play a key role during induced seismic slip on faults in the Groningen and other reservoir systems.

The maximum fault strength and rate of interseismic fault strengthening (“healing”) are of great interest to earthquake hazard assessment studies, as they directly relate to event magnitude and recurrence time. Previous laboratory studies have revealed two distinct frictional healing behaviors, referred to as Dieterich-type and non-Dieterich-type healing. These are characterized by, respectively, log-linear and power-law increase in the strength change with time. To date, there is no physical explanation for the frictional behavior of fault gouges that unifies these seemingly inconsistent observations. Using a microphysical friction model previously developed for granular fault gouges, we investigate fault strengthening analytically and numerically under boundary conditions corresponding to laboratory slide-hold-slide tests. We find that both types of healing can be explained by considering the difference in grain contact creep rheology at short and long time scales. Under hydrothermal conditions favorable for pressure solution creep, healing exhibits a power-law evolution with hold time, with an exponent of ~1/3, and an “apparent” cutoff time (α) of hundreds of seconds. Under room-humidity conditions, where grain contact deformation exhibits only a weak strain-rate dependence, the predicted healing also exhibits a power-law dependence on hold time, but it can be approximated by a log-linear relation with α of a few seconds. We derive analytical expressions for frictional healing parameters (i.e., healing rate, cutoff time, and maximum healing), of which the predictions are consistent with numerical implementation of the model. Finally, we apply the microphysical model to small fault patches on a natural carbonate fault and interpret the restrengthening during seismic cycles.

The strength properties of fault rocks at shearing rates spanning the transition from crystal-plastic flow to frictional slip play a central role in determining the distribution of crustal stress, strain, and seismicity in tectonically active regions. We review experimental and microphysical modelling work, which is aimed at elucidating the processes that control the transition from pervasive ductile flow of fault rock to rate-and-state-dependent frictional (RSF) slip and to runaway rupture, carried out at Utrecht University in the past 2 decades or so. We address shear experiments on simulated gouges composed of calcite, halite-phyllosilicate mixtures, and phyllosilicate-quartz mixtures performed under laboratory conditions spanning the brittle-ductile transition. With increasing shear rate (or decreasing temperature), the results consistently show transitions from (1) stable velocity-strengthening (v-strengthening) behaviour, to potentially unstable v-weakening behaviour, and (2) back to v strengthening. Sample microstructures show that the first transition seen at low shear rates and/or high temperatures represents a switch from pervasive, fully ductile deformation to frictional sliding involving dilatant granular flow in localized shear bands where intergranular slip is incompletely accommodated by creep of individual mineral grains. A recent microphysical model, which treats fault rock deformation as controlled by competition between ratesensitive (diffusional or crystal-plastic) deformation of individual grains and rate-insensitive sliding interactions between grains (granular flow), predicts both transitions well. Unlike classical RSF approaches, this model quantitatively reproduces a wide range of (transient) frictional behaviours using input parameters with direct physical meaning, with the latest progress focusing on incorporation of dynamic weakening processes characterizing co-seismic fault rupture. When implemented in numerical codes for crustal fault slip, the model offers a single unified framework for understanding slip patch nucleation and growth to critical (seismogenic) dimensions, as well as for simulating the entire seismic cycle.

A (micro)physical understanding of the transition from frictional sliding to plastic or viscous flow has long been a challenge for earthquake cycle modeling. We have conducted ring-shear deformation experiments on layers of simulated calcite fault gouge under conditions close to the frictional-to-viscous transition previously established in this material. Constant velocity (v) and v-stepping tests were performed, at 550°C, employing slip rates covering almost 6 orders of magnitude (0.001–300 μm/s). Steady-state sliding transitioned from (strong) v-strengthening, flow-like behavior to v-weakening, frictional behavior, at an apparent “critical” velocity (v_cr) of ~0.1 μm/s. Velocity-stepping tests using v < v_cr showed “semi-brittle” flow behavior, characterized by high stress sensitivity (“n-value”) and a transient response resembling classical frictional deformation. For v ≥ v_cr, gouge deformation is localized in a boundary shear band, while for v < v_cr, the gouge is well-compacted, displaying a progressively homogeneous structure as the slip rate decreases. Using mechanical data and post-mortem microstructural observations as a basis, we deduced the controlling shear deformation mechanisms and quantitatively reproduced the steady-state shear strength-velocity profile using an existing micromechanical model. The same model also reproduces the observed transient responses to v-steps within both the flow-like and frictional deformation regimes. We suggest that the flow-to-friction transition strongly relies on fault (micro)structure and constitutes a net opening of transient microporosity with increasing shear strain rate at v < v_cr, under normal stress-dependent or “semi-brittle” flow conditions. Our findings shed new insights into the microphysics of earthquake rupture nucleation and dynamic propagation in the brittle-to-ductile transition zone.