2023/07/27 by Alice‐Agnes Gabriel, Gabriel, Alice-Agnes, Dmitry Garagash +5 · 5 citations
Computer Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Earthquake Detection and Analysis #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) #Seismology and Earthquake Studies #earthquake and tectonic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2307.15201
openalex publication_date 2023/07/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Earthquakes vary in size over many orders of magnitude, yet the scaling of the earthquake energy budget remains enigmatic. We propose that fundamentally different "small-slip" and "large-slip" fracture processes govern earthquakes. We combine seismological observations with a physics-based mechanical earthquake model under flash-heating friction. We find that dynamic weakening and restrengthening effects are non-negligible in the energy budget of small earthquakes and establish a simple linear scaling relationship between small-slip fracture energy and fault size. We use supercomputing to apply this scaling and unveil volumetric "Mode-4" earthquake cascades involving >700 multi-scale fractures within a fault damage zone, capable of dynamically triggering large earthquakes. Our findings provide an intuitive explanation of seismicity across all scales with important implications for comprehending earthquake nucleation and multi-fault rupture cascades.