SCEC Award Number 16112 View PDF
Proposal Category Individual Proposal (Integration and Theory)
Proposal Title Determining Fault Stressing Rate Uncertainties with CFM-R Based Mechanical Models of Interseismic Deformation in Southern California
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Brendan Meade Harvard University
Other Participants
SCEC Priorities 2d SCEC Groups SDOT, Geodesy
Report Due Date 03/15/2017 Date Report Submitted 04/01/2017
Project Abstract
 The central objective of this project was to calculate uncertainties in stressing rates across California using a three-dimensional geodetically constrained block model. The two primary merits of this approach are: 1) avoids numerical differentiating of GPS velocities and 2) The model is consistent with Newton's second law. The result, which some may have anticipated, was that due to the stress singularity at the edges of dislocations in Somigliana dislocation theory the uncertainty estimates of stressing rates derived from these models could not be physically interpreted except in the far-field. This suggested an alternative course forward: The development of boundary element methods that allow for linear slip transitions (shape functions) over element surfaces rather than the uniform slip shape functions assumed in classical dislocation theory. While still in development these approaches eliminate the stress singularity at dislocation edges and allow for meaningful calculations of stresses in the presence of complex fault geometry.
Intellectual Merit Despite seeming to be a pretty run of the mill contribution to the SCEC community stress model this project proved surprisingly interesting. In other words, it revealed a fairly fundamental challenge in the interpretation of traditional Somigliana dislocation based
Broader Impacts This project contributes to the SCEC community stress model which serves the stress community. Other than that there are no obvious Broader Impacts other than
Exemplary Figure Figure 1 of the Technical report.
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