Sign on

SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service


· Find Similar Abstracts (with default settings below)
· Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)
· References in the article
· Citations to the Article (247) (Citation History)
· Refereed Citations to the Article
· Reads History
·
· Translate This Page
Title:
Variations in earthquake-size distribution across different stress regimes
Authors:
Schorlemmer, Danijel; Wiemer, Stefan; Wyss, Max
Publication:
Nature, Volume 437, Issue 7058, pp. 539-542 (2005). (Nature Homepage)
Publication Date:
09/2005
Origin:
NATURE
DOI:
10.1038/nature04094
Bibliographic Code:
2005Natur.437..539S

Abstract

The earthquake size distribution follows, in most instances, a power law, with the slope of this power law, the `b value', commonly used to describe the relative occurrence of large and small events (a high b value indicates a larger proportion of small earthquakes, and vice versa). Statistically significant variations of b values have been measured in laboratory experiments, mines and various tectonic regimes such as subducting slabs, near magma chambers, along fault zones and in aftershock zones. However, it has remained uncertain whether these differences are due to differing stress regimes, as it was questionable that samples in small volumes (such as in laboratory specimens, mines and the shallow Earth's crust) are representative of earthquakes in general. Given the lack of physical understanding of these differences, the observation that b values approach the constant 1 if large volumes are sampled was interpreted to indicate that b = 1 is a universal constant for earthquakes in general. Here we show that the b value varies systematically for different styles of faulting. We find that normal faulting events have the highest b values, thrust events the lowest and strike-slip events intermediate values. Given that thrust faults tend to be under higher stress than normal faults we infer that the b value acts as a stress meter that depends inversely on differential stress.
Bibtex entry for this abstract   Preferred format for this abstract (see Preferences)


Find Similar Abstracts:

Use: Authors
Title
Abstract Text
Return: Query Results Return    items starting with number
Query Form
Database: Astronomy
Physics
arXiv e-prints