Fig. 2

Flash heating temperature at asperities. Temperatures calculated for slip rates from 10⁻⁴–10⁰ m/s at normal stress = 2.5 MPa, showing the effect of asperity size (a) and number (M), between the size of single particles (10 nm) to the size of particle clumps (100s µm). The maximum flash heating temperature for any of our experiments is estimated to be ∼1000 °C. Melting temperature of cristobalite is plotted for reference