Sylvain Barbot
University of Southern California · Earth Sciences
Active 2005–2024
About
Dr. Sylvain Barbot is a Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on understanding the earthquake phenomenon, including the physics of friction, crustal dynamics, and lithosphere dynamics during the seismic cycle. His work combines laboratory friction experiments, numerical modeling, and tectonic geodesy to study the dynamics of the lithosphere-asthenosphere system at time scales relevant to seismic activity. Dr. Barbot has co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles on the physics of earthquakes and crustal deformation. He studied earthquake physics and tectonic geodesy at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and completed postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology. Prior to his current appointment, he was a Nanyang Assistant Professor and National Research Fellow at the Earth Observatory of Singapore and the Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Institute of Technology. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at the Earthquake Research Institute of the University of Tokyo, the Institute of Geology of the China Earthquake Administration, Peking University, and Caltech. His research aims to model seismic and geodetic data to improve resilience to seismic hazards.
Research topics
- Seismology
- Computer Science
- Geology
- Physics
- Engineering
- Mechanics
- Statistical physics
- Structural engineering
Selected publications
Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth · 2022 · 71 citations
- Computer Science
- Geology
- Seismology
Abstract Dynamic modeling of sequences of earthquakes and aseismic slip (SEAS) provides a self‐consistent, physics‐based framework to connect, interpret, and predict diverse geophysical observations across spatial and temporal scales. Amid growing applications of SEAS models, numerical code verification is essential to ensure reliable simulation results but is often infeasible due to the lack of analytical solutions. Here, we develop two benchmarks for three‐dimensional (3D) SEAS problems to compare and verify numerical codes based on boundary‐element, finite‐element, and finite‐difference methods, in a community initiative. Our benchmarks consider a planar vertical strike‐slip fault obeying a rate‐ and state‐dependent friction law, in a 3D homogeneous, linear elastic whole‐space or half‐space, where spontaneous earthquakes and slow slip arise due to tectonic‐like loading. We use a suite of quasi‐dynamic simulations from 10 modeling groups to assess the agreement during all phases of multiple seismic cycles. We find excellent quantitative agreement among simulated outputs for sufficiently large model domains and small grid spacings. However, discrepancies in rupture fronts of the initial event are influenced by the free surface and various computational factors. The recurrence intervals and nucleation phase of later earthquakes are particularly sensitive to numerical resolution and domain‐size‐dependent loading. Despite such variability, key properties of individual earthquakes, including rupture style, duration, total slip, peak slip rate, and stress drop, are comparable among even marginally resolved simulations. Our benchmark efforts offer a community‐based example to improve numerical simulations and reveal sensitivities of model observables, which are important for advancing SEAS models to better understand earthquake system dynamics.
Seismological Research Letters · 2020 · 91 citations
- Geology
- Seismology
- Statistical physics
Abstract Numerical simulations of sequences of earthquakes and aseismic slip (SEAS) have made great progress over past decades to address important questions in earthquake physics. However, significant challenges in SEAS modeling remain in resolving multiscale interactions between earthquake nucleation, dynamic rupture, and aseismic slip, and understanding physical factors controlling observables such as seismicity and ground deformation. The increasing complexity of SEAS modeling calls for extensive efforts to verify codes and advance these simulations with rigor, reproducibility, and broadened impact. In 2018, we initiated a community code-verification exercise for SEAS simulations, supported by the Southern California Earthquake Center. Here, we report the findings from our first two benchmark problems (BP1 and BP2), designed to verify different computational methods in solving a mathematically well-defined, basic faulting problem. We consider a 2D antiplane problem, with a 1D planar vertical strike-slip fault obeying rate-and-state friction, embedded in a 2D homogeneous, linear elastic half-space. Sequences of quasi-dynamic earthquakes with periodic occurrences (BP1) or bimodal sizes (BP2) and their interactions with aseismic slip are simulated. The comparison of results from 11 groups using different numerical methods show excellent agreements in long-term and coseismic fault behavior. In BP1, we found that truncated domain boundaries influence interseismic stressing, earthquake recurrence, and coseismic rupture, and that model agreement is only achieved with sufficiently large domain sizes. In BP2, we found that complexity of fault behavior depends on how well physical length scales related to spontaneous nucleation and rupture propagation are resolved. Poor numerical resolution can result in artificial complexity, impacting simulation results that are of potential interest for characterizing seismic hazard such as earthquake size distributions, moment release, and recurrence times. These results inform the development of more advanced SEAS models, contributing to our further understanding of earthquake system dynamics.
Recent grants
CAREER: Assimilation of Geodetic Data in Physical Models of Subduction Zones
NSF · $599k · 2019–2025
Frequent coauthors
- 46 shared
Alice‐Agnes Gabriel
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- 46 shared
Emma M. Hill
Nanyang Technological University
- 45 shared
Lujia Feng
Nanyang Technological University
- 45 shared
Casper Pranger
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- 45 shared
Valère Lambert
University of California, Santa Cruz
- 44 shared
Qiang Qiu
Institute of Oceanology
- 41 shared
Yuri Fialko
- 38 shared
N. Lapusta
Education
- 2009
PhD, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- 2007
Master of Science, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- 2005
Master
Institut de physique du globe de Paris
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