The deterministic nature of earthquake rupture

Erik L. Olson and Richard M. Allen ()
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Erik L. Olson: University of Wisconsin Madison
Richard M. Allen: University of California Berkeley

Nature, 2005, vol. 438, issue 7065, 212-215

Abstract: Earthquake initiation In the cascade model, a widely accepted explanation of earthquake initiation, slip initiates on a small fault patch and continues to rupture along a fault plane if conditions are favourable. The implications of this domino-like theory are that a small earthquake begins in the same way as a large one, and that the size of an earthquake cannot be determined until the rupture stops. Olson and Allen now suggest that processes during earthquake initiation do control the final magnitude to some degree. They find a scaling relation between the frequency content of energy radiated in the first few seconds of rupture and earthquake magnitude. Understanding the physics of this process may make it possible to predict the magnitude of earthquakes without knowing the surrounding state of stress on a fault.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04214

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