Nonlinear processes in earthquake foci

Abstract

The results of laboratory experiments on biaxially compressed physical models of a seismic source are presented, discussed and interpreted in terms of nonlinear dynamics; the relation is shown between the degree of seismic pulse coherency (expressed through the amplitude frequency spectra development) and energy (or magnitude) in a series of model experiments. It has been ascertained that the degree of radiated waves coherency plays a more important role concerning the seismic energy release than the size (radius) of the seismic source.

The relations among individual source parameters obtained in the laboratory were tested by the analysis of three series of seismograms of aftershocks which followed the 1988 Spitak earthquake (two series) and the 1975 Oroville earthquake (one series). The fundamental effect observed in the laboratory, i.e., the growth of pulse coherency with increasing stress concentration in the focal region (reflected in growing earthquake magnitude), was clearly manifested in all three earthquake aftershock series.

Due to derivation by a comparison of the above results, obtained on the basis of nonlinear dynamics with the classical source models by Brune, Madariaga and others, it seems to be namely the self-organizing of the structure itself caused by the increasing stress field in the seismic source, which can answer the question concerning the degree of energy cumulation in the earthquake focus at a given moment.