Anisotropy reveals contact sliding and aging as a cause of post-seismic velocity changes

Anisotropy reveals contact sliding and aging as a cause of post-seismic velocity changes | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Anisotropy reveals contact sliding and aging as a cause of post-seismic velocity changes Manuel Asnar, Christoph Sens-Schoenfelder, Audrey Bonnelye, Andrew Curtis, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5587970/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Rocks exhibit astonishing time dependent mechanical properties, like memory of experienced stress or slow dynamics, which refers to a transient recovery of stiff-ness after a softening induced by almost any type of loading. This softening and transient recovery is observed in the subsurface and in buildings after earthquake shaking, or in laboratory samples. Our investigation of anisotropy of the slow dynamics effect under uniaxial loading shows that it is observed independent of propagation direction, while the loading effect shows the expected anisotropy originating from the opening and closing of cracks. These observations put a number of novel constraints on the enigmatic physics of slow dynamics. We conclude that transient changes in bulk stiffness are caused by sliding of oblique grain-to-grain contacts and resulting changes in frictional properties as empirically described by rate-and-state friction and observed in laboratory experiments across block contacts. Connecting the nonclassical nonlinearity of heterogeneous materials to the powerful framework of rate-and-state friction provides an elegant explanation for the long searched-for origin of slow dynamics and potentially adds a new perspective for the monitoring of very early stages of material failure when deformation is still distributed in the bulk and just starts to coalesce towards a fracture. Earth and environmental sciences/Solid Earth sciences/Seismology Earth and environmental sciences/Solid Earth sciences anisotropy rock physics slow dynamics geophysics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files snarticlesup.pdf Supplementary Discussions and Figures codeanddata.zip Relative velocity change measurements and model inversion results Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5587970","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":405827482,"identity":"4c25732e-f058-4d45-af4e-4627553acbcd","order_by":0,"name":"Manuel 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