Sofia Michail

EMRP Earth Magnetism & Rock Physics

The 2024 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Sofia Michail for the poster/PICO entitled:

Laboratory Insight into the Evolution of the Seismic Potential of an Asperity due to Wear (Michail, S.; Selvadurai, P. A.; Rast, M.; Salazar Vásquez, A. F.; Bianchi, P.; Madonna, C.; Wiemer, S.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Sofia Michail is currently a Doctoral student at the Swiss Seismological Service, in ETH Zurich, where she is working in the Rock Physics and Mechanics Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Stefan Wiemer, Dr. Claudio Madonna and Dr. Paul Selvadurai. Her research investigates how fault surface characteristics affect earthquake preparatory processes and fault stability.

At EGU 2024, Sofia presented a variety of experimental techniques such as Distributed Strain Sensing (DSS) with fibre optic cables, which helped to investigate the relationship between fault stability, multiscale roughness and its evolution due to wear in frictional tests. A transition in the seismogenic response during the frictional test appeared to be related to wear due to gouge deposition and interface smoothing. This strongly influenced whether the fault experienced dynamic stick-slip. The dense array of DSS measurements near the fault supported the idea that strain stored in the gouge or off-fault material can be a proxy for fault stability and influence fault reactivation. This work has implications in further understanding the mechanisms that promote regular earthquakes and weakening processes leading to fault reactivation in nature