Scaling laws in earthquake occurrence: Disorder, viscosity, and finite size effects in Olami-Feder-Christensen models

Abstract

The relation between seismic moment and fractured area is crucial to earthquake hazard analysis. Experimental catalogs show multiple scaling behaviors, with some controversy concerning the exponent value in the large earthquake regime. Here, we show that the original Olami, Feder, and Christensen model does not capture experimental findings. Taking into account heterogeneous friction, the visco elastic nature of faults together with finite-size effects, we are able to reproduce the different scaling regimes of field observations. We provide an explanation for the origin of the two crossovers between scaling regimes, which are shown to be controlled both by the geometry and the bulk dynamics.

6 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Viscoelastic Effects in Avalanche Dynamics: A Key to Earthquake Statistics
• Quenched pinning and collective dislocation dynamics
• Aftershock production rate of driven viscoelastic interfaces
• A forest-fire analogy to explain the b-value of the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes
• Creep dynamics of viscoelastic interfaces

Cited by in corpus (2)

• The influence of the brittle-ductile transition zone on aftershock and foreshock occurrence
• Fault heterogeneity and the connection between aftershocks and afterslip