The SCEC/USGS Dynamic Earthquake Rupture Code Verification Exercise

Dynamic Stress Changes during Earthquake Rupture

We assess two competing dynamic interpretations that have been proposed for the short slip durations characteristic of kinematic earthquake models derived by inversion of earthquake waveform and geodetic data. The first interpretation would require a fault constitutive relationship in which rapid dynamic restrengthening of the fault surface occurs after passage of the rupture front, a hypothesi...

The Mechanics of Earthquake Rupture

Modeling Dynamic Rupture in a 3D Earthquake Fault Model

We propose a fourth-order staggered-grid finite-difference method to study dynamic faulting in three dimensions. The method uses an implementation of the boundary conditions on the fault that allows the use of general friction models including slip weakening and rate dependence. Because the staggered-grid method defines stresses and particle velocities at different grid points, we preserve symm...

Earthquake lights and rupture processes

A physical model of earthquake lights is proposed. It is suggested that the magnetic diffusion from the electric and magnetic fields source region is a dominant process, explaining rather high localization of the light flashes. A 3D numerical code allowing to take into account the arbitrary distribution of currents caused by ground motion, conductivity in the ground and at its surface, includin...

A dynamic model of the frequency-dependent rupture process of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake

We present a 2D dynamic rupture model that provides a physical interpretation of the key features of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake rupture. This minimalistic model assumes linear slip-weakening friction, the presence of deep asperities and depth-dependent initial stresses. It reproduces the first-order observations of the alongdip rupture process during its initial 100 s, such as large static ...