Toward Nanoseismology

深震源地震的发生仍然是地球物理学最大的谜团之一，因为实验室实验表明，物质在地球深处的压力下变得具有延展性。那么岩石是如何在25万大气压的最强烈地震的压力下发生脆性破裂的呢？该提案要求支持一项为期3年的努力，旨在开发并开始应用一种新的实验方法来表征高压下样品产生的声发射。为了表征地幔矿物及其类似物中高压相变所释放的弹性能，一组ghz频率传感器将被连接到钻石砧细胞上。这项工作结合了成熟的技术（声发射记录和GHz超声波与金刚石电池），并显示出相当大的希望，未来发展各种补充方法（光学，光谱，衍射），以详细表征脆性破坏，并在广泛的条件下。

Raymond JeanlozEAR-0126217The occurrence of deep-focus earthquakes remains one of the great mysteries of geophysics because laboratory experiments demonstrate that materials become ductile at the pressures of the Earth's deep interior. How then can rock undergo brittle rupture at the pressures of the deepest earthquakes, some 0.25 million atmospheres? The proposal requests support for a 3-year effort intended to develop and then begin applying a new experimental method for characterizing acoustic emissions generated from samples at high pressures. An array of GHz-frequency sensors is to be attached to a diamond-anvil cell in order to characterize the elastic-energy released by high-pressure phase transitions in mantle minerals and their analogs. The work combines proven technologies (acoustic-emission recording and GHz ultrasonics with the diamond cell), and shows considerable promise for future development of a large variety of complementary methods (optical, spectroscopic, diffraction) for characterizing brittle failure in detail and under a wide range of conditions.