A simple fracture‐mechanical model for the evolution of seismicity

Jeremy Henderson*, Ian Main

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

A simple model is presented in which a fault is represented by a one‐dimensional array of elements to which a remote stress is applied. The fracture toughnesses of the fault elements are initially generated by a random walk function, but the fracture system quickly becomes organized into a fractal set characterised by a (box‐counting) fractal dimension. The slope, b, of the frequency‐magnitude distribution and the fractal dimension of the crack population are measured at each step, and found to vary in a similar manner to the seismic b‐value and fractal dimension of earthquake epicentres. The model also predicts the observed variation of b‐value of acoustic emissions in laboratory experiments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)365-368
Number of pages4
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume19
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 1992

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