ViscoSim Earthquake Simulator

Fred F. Pollitz

Published 2012, SCEC Contribution #1620

Under the auspices of the Earthquake Simulators Group of the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), I employ a viscoelastic seismicity simulator. It includes the following
ingredients: static stress transfer, displacement-dependent friction, viscoelastic relaxation of the lower crust and
mantle, and vertical stratification of elastic and viscoelastic material properties. Using a Coulomb failure criterion, a cascade mechanism is used to determine the initiation, propagation, and termination of synthetic ruptures. It is employed on a 3D fault network used by all simulators in the SCEC Earthquake Simulators Group. Resulting synthetic seismicity catalogs spanning 30000 years and about one-half million events yield a detailed picture of the evolution of seismicity and crustal stress at magnitude M ~5 - 8.

Citation
Pollitz, F. F. (2012). ViscoSim Earthquake Simulator. Seismological Research Letters, 83(6), 979-982. doi: 10.1785/0220120050.