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A minimalist model of characteristic earthquakes
Faculty of Sciences, University of Zaragoza, Pedro Cerbuna, 12, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Abstract. In a spirit akin to the sandpile model of self-organized criticality, we present a simple statistical model of the cellular-automaton type which simulates the role of an asperity in the dynamics of a one-dimensional fault. This model produces an earthquake spectrum similar to the characteristic-earthquake behaviour of some seismic faults. This model, that has no parameter, is amenable to an algebraic description as a Markov Chain. This possibility illuminates some important results, obtained by Monte Carlo simulations, such as the earthquake size-frequency relation and the recurrence time of the characteristic earthquake.
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Citation: Vázquez-Prada, M., González, Á., Gómez, J. B., and Pacheco, A. F.: A minimalist model of characteristic earthquakes, Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 9, 513-519, 2002. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
