Abstract
Simple models for ruptures along a heterogeneous earthquake fault zone are studied, focusing on the interplay between the roles of disorder and dynamical effects. A class of models are found to operate naturally at a critical point whose properties yield power-law scaling of earthquake statistics. Various dynamical effects can change the behavior to a distribution of small events combined with characteristic system size events. The studies employ various analytic methods as well as simulations.
- Received 3 March 1997
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.4885
©1997 American Physical Society