Stress Heterogeneity and the Onset of Faulting Along Geometrically Irregular Faults

We present a two-dimensional analytical solution for the static stress field around rough interlocked interface under background stresses and its applications to faulting. The is derived using perturbation theory defined topography stresses. failure-ratio, which scales likelihood failure of bulk material interface, calculated adopting Coulomb criterion. compare model predictions with results experiments performed on rock interfaces find good agreement between locations off-fault deformation zones high failure-ratio values. further study effect fault distribution San Andreas Fault moderate correlation Failure-Ratio values seismic events. conclude that our able delineate regions are relatively prone due local effects topography.