Energetics of strain localization in a model of seismic slip

[1] We quantify the energy dissipated to heat and to local disorder in a sheared layer of granular fault gouge. Local disorder is modeled using shear transformation zone theory, a continuum model of nonaffine deformation in amorphous solids that resolves spontaneous localization of strain. Strain localization decreases the total energy dissipated during slip. In addition, a fraction of this energy is dissipated to increasing local disorder as the material is sheared, thereby decreasing the amount of energy dissipated as thermal heat. We quantify the heat dissipated per unit area as a function of total slip in the presence and absence of strain localization and test the parameter dependence of these calculations. We find that less heat is dissipated per unit area compared to results obtained using a traditional heuristic energy partition.