An asperity is an area on an
active
Active may refer to:
Music
* ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea
* Active Records, a record label
Ships
* ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name
* HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...
fault where there is increased friction, such that the fault may become locked, rather than continuously slipping as in
aseismic creep
In geology, aseismic creep or fault creep is measurable surface displacement along a fault in the absence of notable earthquakes. Aseismic creep may also occur as "after-slip" days to years after an earthquake. Notable examples of aseismic slip in ...
.
Earthquake rupture
In seismology, an earthquake rupture is the extent of slip that occurs during an earthquake in the Earth's crust. Earthquakes occur for many reasons that include: landslides, movement of magma in a volcano, the formation of a new fault, or, mos ...
generally begins with the failure of an asperity, allowing the fault to move.
See also
*
Asperity (materials science)
In materials science, asperity, defined as "unevenness of surface, roughness, ruggedness" (from the Latin ''asper''—"rough"), has implications (for example) in physics and seismology. Smooth surfaces, even those polished to a mirror finish, a ...
*
Asperity (geotechnical engineering) In geotechnical engineering and contact mechanics the term asperity is used to refer to individual features of unevenness (''roughness'') of the surface of a discontinuity, grain, or particle with heights in the range from approximately 0.1 mm ...
*
Earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
*
Fault friction Fault friction describes the relation of friction to fault mechanics. Rock failure and associated earthquakes are very much a fractal operation (see Characteristic earthquake). The process remains scale-invariant down to the smallest crystal. Thu ...
*
Fault mechanics
Fault mechanics is a field of study that investigates the behavior of geologic faults.
Behind every good earthquake is some weak rock. Whether the rock remains weak becomes an important point in determining the potential for bigger earthquakes. ...
References
External links
IRIS page on fault asperities with simple cartoon video of an asperity on an active faultIRIS page on "Modeling Asperities on a Strike-Slip Fault with Spaghetti"
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Seismology