Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Scholz, C. H. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

A further note on earthquake size distributions

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University, Palisades, New York, 10964

Abstract

At the scale range of 1 to 10 km, faults are not continuous surfaces but are tabular bodies composed of a mesh of subparallel unconnected strands, or subfaults. The cumulative length distribution of these subfaults is observed to be a power law with an approximate exponent of –2 and an upper fractal limit at W*, the seismogenic width. If it is assumed that small earthquakes, with lengths L W*, represent the rupture of these subfaults, this offers a physical explanation for small earthquakes having their observed power-law distribution with exponent –2/3. This further implies that any earthquake will be composed of a population of subevents involving the rupture of this population of subfaults: precisely what was proposed by Frankel (1991) to explain the ^–2 high-frequency falloff of earthquake displacement spectra.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				Aftershock Zone Scaling Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, March 1, 2002; 92(2): 641 - 655.