Similarities between mode III crack growth patterns and strike-slip faults

Abstract

Why are strike slip faults not perfectly linear but made of successive segments? Are they reminiscences of the fracture of an initially sound crust by the bottom-up propagation of a crack subjected to mode III loading? The plausibility of this newly proposed scenario will be investigated here through model experiments and some theoretical explanations in the framework of brittle fracture. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Statistical physics of fracture and earthquakes’.