Branches and Offsets: Issues in 3-D Earthquake Models with Complex
Fault Geometry

by David Oglesby
UC Riverside

3-4pm
Friday November 15, 2002
Refreshments served at 2:45pm
Munk Conference Room
Cecil and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego
http://mahi.ucsd.edu/seminar/

Abstract

Recent faulting models by many groups have analyzed the dynamics of
faults with complex non-planar geometry.  Some of the fundamental issues
that have been addressed in these models are the ability of earthquakes
to propagate through geometrical discontinuities such as branches and
offsets, and the growth of stress and slip complexity due to complicated
fault geometry.  Using dynamic three-dimensional models of earthquake
rupture and slip, we have found that the ability of rupture to propagate
through branches and offsets can depend strongly on the pre-stress
configuration, material properties, and three-dimensional effects.
In cases where the stress interaction between fault segments is strong
in both directions, complexity in the final stress distribution can
increase, even away from geometrical discontinuities.  Implications for
fault dynamics and the predictability of fault behavior will be discussed.