Earthquakes may not be as random as thought, new research suggests

“Any kind of fault can trigger many different types of seismic events,” says François Passelègue, a scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) who has spent the last ten years trying to understand how or why earthquakes occur. Passelègue recently made a breakthrough in uncovering the rupture mechanisms that eventually lead to seismic shifts. To study the dynamics of faults – the areas between tectonic plates where most earthquakes occur – the scientist developed an experimental fault mimicking the same temperature and pressure conditions as an actual fault 8km deep. He installed sensors along the fault to identify the factors that cause slow and fast ruptures. Earthquakes can be either slow or fast. In slow earthquakes, seismic waves can be absorbed by the surrounding earth. They occur frequently but cannot be felt by humans. Extremely fast earthquakes, which are less common, have high-frequency waves that release energy in mere seconds, with...