Robert C. Viesca

Associate Professor Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering Tufts University 207 Anderson Hall 200 College Avenue Medford, MA 02155 email: robert.viesca@tufts.edu

Research interests

Collaborators

Current members of the research group

Federico Ciardo, Postdoctoral Scholar; Ph.D., Mechanics, EPFL; fluid injection and activation of fault networks; friction constitutive relations; boundary element modelling.

Prospective members of the research group

Postdoctoral scholars—or those soon to be one—with similar interests and in search of a postdoctoral position are encouraged to send an email.

Graduates interested to join the group in pursuit of a Ph.D. are also encouraged to send an email and apply to join the department's Geosystems graduate program. See here for information on the application process.

Support for Tufts undergraduates is available through the Tufts Summer Scholars program. Support for department undergraduates is available from the Cataldo Fellowship (competitive process announced Spring term).

Former members

Parker Aubin, Staff Engineer/Project Geophysicist, Infrasense, Woburn, MA. Previously, M.S. Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Pathikrit Bhattacharya (website), Assistant Professor, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, NISER. Previously, Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Antoine B. Jacquey (website), Assistant Professor, Département des génies civil, géologique et des mines, Polytechnique Montréal. Previously, Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Sohom Ray (website), Assistant Professor, Department of Earthquake Engineering, IIT Roorkee. Previously, Ph.D. Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Lichen Wang, Geotechnical Project Professional, GEI Consultants, Boston, MA. Previously, M.S. Student, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Recent and upcoming group presentations, travel, and seminars

Numerical Modeling of Earthquake Motions: Waves and Ruptures, "Propagation of extended fractures by local nucleation and rapid transverse expansion of crack-front distortion," 24 Jun. '24: T. Chochard, I. Svetlizky, G. Albertini, R. C. Viesca, S. M. Rubinstein, F. Spaepen, C. Yuan, M. A. Denolle, Y. Q. Song, L. Zhao, D. A. Weitz

Numerical Modeling of Earthquake Motions: Waves and Ruptures, "Conditions for slow-to-fast slip in a single-asperity strike-Slip fault," 24 Jun. '24: F. Ciardo, R. C. Viesca, D. I. Garagash

Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference 2024, "Conditions for steady creep, asesmic transients, and seismic slip in a single-asperity strike-slip fault," 29 May '24: F. Ciardo, R. C. Viesca, D. I. Garagash

Seminar, Caltech Seismolab, "Slow-to-fast slip on faults governed by rate- and state-dependent friction," 3 May '24: F. Ciardo

Seminar, Center for Science for Protection of Engineered Environments (SPREE), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, 23 Feb. '24: F. Ciardo

AGU Fall Meeting, 11-15 Dec., '23: F. Ciardo, "Slip dynamics on fault zones: investigation of the behavior of a single rate-weakening patch over the seismic cycle," presentation, T22A-02, Tues. 12 Dec.

Publications

F. Ciardo and R. C. Viesca, Non-linear stability analysis of slip in a single-degree-of-freedom elastic system with frictional evolution laws spanning aging to slip, arXiv:2401.13828 (link), (pdf)

Thomas, C., I. Svetlizky, G. Albertini, R. C. Viesca, S. M. Rubinstein, F. Spaepen, C. Yuan, M. Denolle, Y.-Q. Song, L. Xiao, D. A. Weitz, Propagation of extended fractures by local nucleation and rapid transverse expansion of crack-front distortion, Nature Physics, doi:10.1038/s41567-023-02365-0 (pdf)

Viesca, R.C., Asymptotic solutions for self-similar fault slip induced by fluid injection at constant rate, arXiv:2401.13828 (link), (pdf)

Jacquey, A. B., and R. C. Viesca, Nucleation and arrest of fluid-induced aseismic slip, Geophysical Research Letters, 50, e2022GL101228, 2023, doi:10.1029/2022GL101228 (pdf)

Viesca, R. C., Frictional state evolution laws and the non-linear nucleation of dynamic shear rupture, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 173, 105221, 2023, doi:10.1016/j.jmps.2023.105221 (article) (pre-print pdf)

Sáez, A., B. Lecampion, P. Bhattacharya, and R. C. Viesca, Three-dimensional fluid-driven stable frictional ruptures, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 160, 104754, 2022. doi:10.1016/j.jmps.2021.104754 (pdf)

Viesca, R. C., Self-similar fault slip in response to fluid injection, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 928, A29, 2021. doi:10.1017/jfm.2021.825 (article), (pre-print pdf)

Ray, S., and R. C. Viesca, Homogenization of fault frictional properties, Geophysical Journal International, 219, 1203–1211, 2019. doi:10.1093/gji/ggz327 (pdf)

Viesca, R. C., and P. Dublanchet, The slow slip of viscous faults, Journal of Geophysical Research, 124, 4959–4983, 2019. doi:10.1029/2018JB016294 (pdf)

Bhattacharya, P., and R. C. Viesca, Fluid-induced aseismic fault slip outpaces pore-fluid migration, Science, 364(6439), 464–468, 2019. doi:10.1126/science.aaw7354. (article)

Viesca, R. C., and D. I. Garagash, Numerical methods for coupled fracture problems, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 113, 13–34, 2018. doi:10.1016/j.jmps.2018.01.008 (pdf)

Ray, S., and R. C. Viesca, Earthquake nucleation on faults with heterogeneous frictional properties, normal stress, Journal of Geophysical Research, 122, 8214–8240, 2017. doi:10.1002/2017JB014521 (pdf)

Brantut, N., and R. C. Viesca, The fracture energy of ruptures driven by flash heating, Geophysical Research Letters, 44, 6718–6725, 2017. doi:10.1002/2017GL074110 (pdf, suppl.)

Viesca, R. C., Self-similar slip instability on interfaces with rate- and state-dependent friction, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 472(2192), 20160254, 2016. doi:10.1098/rspa.2016.0254 (pdf, suppl.)

Viesca, R. C., Stable and unstable development of an interfacial sliding instability, Physical Review E, 93(6), 060202(R), 2016. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.93.060202 (pdf, suppl.)

Platt, J. D., R. C. Viesca, and D. I. Garagash, Steadily propagating slip pulses driven by thermal decomposition, Journal of Geophysical Research, 120, B12200, 2015. doi:10.1002/2015JB012200 (pdf)

Viesca, R. C., and D. I. Garagash, Ubiquitous weakening of faults due to thermal pressurization, Nature Geoscience, 8(11), 875–879, 2015. doi:10.1038/ngeo2554 (article, pdf, supp., addl. supp.)

Brantut, N., and R. C. Viesca, Earthquake nucleation in intact or healed rocks, Journal of Geophysical Research, 119, B11518, 2015. doi:10.1002/2014JB011518 (pdf)

Viesca, R. C., and J. R. Rice, Nucleation of slip-weakening rupture instability in landslides by localized increase of pore pressure, Journal of Geophysical Research, 117, B03104, 2012. doi:10.1029/2011JB008866 (pdf)

Viesca, R. C., The near and far of pore pressure during landslide and earthquake ruptures, Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, August 2011. (pdf)

Viesca, R. C., and J. R. Rice, Elastic reciprocity and symmetry constraints on the stress field due to a surface-parallel distribution of dislocations, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 59, 2011, pp. 753–757. doi:10.1016/j.jmps.2011.01.011 (pdf)

Viesca, R. C., and J. R. Rice, Modeling slope instability as shear rupture propagation in a saturated porous medium, in Submarine Mass Movements and Their Consequences, 4th International Symposium, Austin, TX, 8–11 Nov. 2009., (eds. D.C. Mosher, R.C. Shipp, L. Moscardelli, J.D. Chaytor, C.D.P. Baxter, H. J. Lee, R. Urgeles), Springer, 2010, pp. 215–225. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-3071-9_18 (pdf) (presentation broadcast)

Viesca, R. C., E. L. Templeton, and J. R. Rice, Off-Fault Plasticity and Earthquake Rupture Dynamics, 2. Effects of Fluid Saturation, Journal of Geophysical Research, 113, B09307, 2008. doi:10.1029/2007JB005530 (pdf) (part 1: Templeton & Rice pdf)

Professional Appointments and Education