Monica Barbery, Brown University

Flash-weakening models show good agreement with the total magnitude of weakening observed in high-velocity rock friction experiments, however deviations from model predictions during the acceleration and deceleration phases remain unresolved. Here, I present recent work on Westerly granite using a high-speed biaxial apparatus outfitted with a high-speed infrared camera. We use unique sliding surface geometries to control mm-scale life-times and rest-times and to inform 1-D thermal models. We compare model predictions with measured surface temperatures to constrain the evolution of local normal stress at the mm-scale and incorporate this evolution into a flash heating model that considers weakening at both the µm- and mm-scale.

Short biography
Dr. Barbery received her PhD in geophysics from Texas A&M University in 2022 and is currently an NSF postdoctoral fellow at Brown University. Her current research investigates the competition between thermal pressurization and dilatancy related to natural fault roughness using the Tullis Rotary Shear Apparatus.