PreprintCC BY 4.0EarthArXiv
Understanding Earthquake Physics with On-Fault Observatories
Abstract
Earthquakes often strike without warning. Current fault monitoring infrastructure is not sensitive enough to detect signals such as accelerating fault creep or dilation, which laboratory experiments and numerical models predict may precede large earthquakes. Here we argue that a paradigm shift is needed and technically achievable: from inferring faulting processes from a distance with surface arrays, to on-fault observatories (OFOs) that measure the processes directly on faults. And from accidental fault activation to controlled fault activation experiments. We discuss how the resulting observations could solve long-standing earthquake physics questions, and pave the way for more powerful earthquake risk mitigation strategies.
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BibTeX
@misc{meier2026understanding,
title = {{Understanding Earthquake Physics with On-Fault Observatories}},
author = {Men-Andrin Meier and Paul Antony Selvadurai and Luca Dal Zilio and Florian Amann and Marco Bohnhoff and Massimo Cocco and William Ellsworth and Alice-Agnes Gabriel and Satoshi Ide and Kuo-Fong Ma and Heather Savage and Mariano Supino and Elisa Tinti and Stefan Wiemer and Domenico Giardini},
howpublished = {EarthArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31223/x5fj7m},
url = {https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/15332/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Understanding Earthquake Physics with On-Fault Observatories
AU - Men-Andrin Meier
AU - Paul Antony Selvadurai
AU - Luca Dal Zilio
AU - Florian Amann
AU - Marco Bohnhoff
AU - Massimo Cocco
AU - William Ellsworth
AU - Alice-Agnes Gabriel
AU - Satoshi Ide
AU - Kuo-Fong Ma
AU - Heather Savage
AU - Mariano Supino
AU - Elisa Tinti
AU - Stefan Wiemer
AU - Domenico Giardini
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
PB - EarthArXiv
DO - 10.31223/x5fj7m
UR - https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/15332/
AB - Earthquakes often strike without warning. Current fault monitoring infrastructure is not sensitive enough to detect signals such as accelerating fault creep or dilation, which laboratory experiments and numerical models predict may precede large earthquakes. Here we argue that a paradigm shift is needed and technically achievable: from inferring faulting processes from a distance with surface arrays, to on-fault observatories (OFOs) that measure the processes directly on faults. And from accidental fault activation to controlled fault activation experiments. We discuss how the resulting observations could solve long-standing earthquake physics questions, and pave the way for more powerful earthquake risk mitigation strategies.
ER -