This paper reviews laboratory observations of earthquake initiation and describes new
experiments on a 3‐m rock sample where the nucleation process is imaged in detail. Many …

Faults are rarely completely smooth, with topographic undulations coming from the
distribution of asperities along the fault surface. Understanding the effects of fault surface …

Rapid rupture fronts—akin to earthquakes—mediate the transition to frictional motion. Once
formed, their singular form, dynamics and arrest are well described by fracture mechanics …

Earthquakes are rupture-like processes that propagate along tectonic faults and cause
seismic waves. The propagation speed and final area of the rupture, which determine an …

Since emerging in Brazil in 1985, wheat blast has spread throughout South America and
recently appeared in Bangladesh and Zambia. Here we show that two wheat resistance …

Earthquakes occur in clusters or sequences that arise from complex triggering mechanisms,
but direct measurement of the slow subsurface slip responsible for delayed triggering is …

Fluid injection stimulates seismicity far from active tectonic regions. However, the details of
how fluids modify on‐fault stresses and initiate seismic events remain poorly understood …

The preparation process of natural earthquakes is still difficult to quantify and remains a
subject of debate even with modern observational techniques. Here, we show that foreshock …

Earthquakes are the dynamic rupture of faults governed by fault weakening processes.
Critical slip-weakening distance (D c) is a crucial source parameter of earthquakes, and the …

Recent observations show that certain rupture phase can propagate backward relative to the
earlier one during a single earthquake event. Such back‐propagating rupture (BPR) was not …