Earthquakes Generate Immense, Localized Heat

A new series of studies conducted by investigators at the Brown University finally manages to shed more light on a naturally-occurring phenomenon called flash heating, which only occurs during intense earthquakes. Experts have been trying to understand the process in detail for years.

Brown geophysicists set up a series of experiments that enabled them to replicate all major traits of an earthquake, such as for example its speed and magnitude. Details of their investigation were published in the latest issue of the top journal Science.

One of the most important things the team learned was that the excessive heat that is produced inside a fault line as a tremor takes place is generally very localized. It is focused only on specific, scattered points, where fault line surfaces touch each other ever so slightly.

What this implies is that the overall temperature of a fault line may remain constant, even while some of its portions get extremely hot. “We still largely don’t understand what is going at earthquake slip speeds, because it’s difficult to do experiments at these speeds,” Brown team member David Goldsby says.