Distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes

Theoretical calculations, simulations and measurements of rotation of earthquake focal mechanisms suggest that the stress in earthquake focal zones follows the Cauchy distribution which is one of the stable probability distributions (with the value of the exponent α equal to 1). We review the proper...

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Main Author: Y. Y. Kagan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 1994-01-01
Series:Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics
Online Access:http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/1/172/1994/npg-1-172-1994.pdf
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spelling doaj-29daecf191314268b95879de1c255d622020-11-24T23:05:46ZengCopernicus PublicationsNonlinear Processes in Geophysics1023-58091607-79461994-01-0112/3172181Distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakesY. Y. KaganTheoretical calculations, simulations and measurements of rotation of earthquake focal mechanisms suggest that the stress in earthquake focal zones follows the Cauchy distribution which is one of the stable probability distributions (with the value of the exponent α equal to 1). We review the properties of the stable distributions and show that the Cauchy distribution is expected to approximate the stress caused by earthquakes occurring over geologically long intervals of a fault zone development. However, the stress caused by recent earthquakes recorded in instrumental catalogues, should follow symmetric stable distributions with the value of α significantly less than one. This is explained by a fractal distribution of earthquake hypocentres: the dimension of a hypocentre set, ��, is close to zero for short-term earthquake catalogues and asymptotically approaches 2¼ for long-time intervals. We use the Harvard catalogue of seismic moment tensor solutions to investigate the distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes. The stress measured in the focal zone of each event is approximated by stable distributions. In agreement with theoretical considerations, the exponent value of the distribution approaches zero as the time span of an earthquake catalogue (ΔT) decreases. For large stress values α increases. We surmise that it is caused by the δ increase for small inter-earthquake distances due to location errors.http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/1/172/1994/npg-1-172-1994.pdf
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Y. Y. Kagan
spellingShingle Y. Y. Kagan
Distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes
Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics
author_facet Y. Y. Kagan
author_sort Y. Y. Kagan
title Distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes
title_short Distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes
title_full Distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes
title_fullStr Distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes
title_full_unstemmed Distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes
title_sort distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes
publisher Copernicus Publications
series Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics
issn 1023-5809
1607-7946
publishDate 1994-01-01
description Theoretical calculations, simulations and measurements of rotation of earthquake focal mechanisms suggest that the stress in earthquake focal zones follows the Cauchy distribution which is one of the stable probability distributions (with the value of the exponent α equal to 1). We review the properties of the stable distributions and show that the Cauchy distribution is expected to approximate the stress caused by earthquakes occurring over geologically long intervals of a fault zone development. However, the stress caused by recent earthquakes recorded in instrumental catalogues, should follow symmetric stable distributions with the value of α significantly less than one. This is explained by a fractal distribution of earthquake hypocentres: the dimension of a hypocentre set, ��, is close to zero for short-term earthquake catalogues and asymptotically approaches 2¼ for long-time intervals. We use the Harvard catalogue of seismic moment tensor solutions to investigate the distribution of incremental static stress caused by earthquakes. The stress measured in the focal zone of each event is approximated by stable distributions. In agreement with theoretical considerations, the exponent value of the distribution approaches zero as the time span of an earthquake catalogue (ΔT) decreases. For large stress values α increases. We surmise that it is caused by the δ increase for small inter-earthquake distances due to location errors.
url http://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/1/172/1994/npg-1-172-1994.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT yykagan distributionofincrementalstaticstresscausedbyearthquakes
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