Report on 'Representing Mega Earthquakes in the Laboratory: The Discovery of Super-shear, or Intersonic, Earthquake Ruptures'

Earthquakes are one of the most challenging natural hazards that defy prediction with any reasonable warning time that may be possible in the case of hurricanes, cyclones or tsunamis. Studying earthquakes both in the field and laboratories, presents a host of challenges to the seismologist; and, the most obvious ones being the inability to trigger an earthquake in the laboratory and simulate the behaviour of slip along the fault zone at depths. In an enthralling lecture, Prof. Rosakis illuminated the concept of Laboratory Earthquakes as well as the experimental discovery of super-shear earthquake ruptures, whose speeds exceed the shear wave speed of crustal rocks.