Seismo Lab Brown Bag Seminar

I present 2D and 3D simulation results using a discrete fault network earthquake simulator, Quake-DFN. First, with the 2D simulator, I analyze foreshock, swarm, and aftershock sequences resulting from cascades in a Discrete Fault Network model governed by rate-and-state friction.I show that the model produces realistic swarms, foreshocks, and aftershocks. A high-density complex fault zone favors fault interactions and the emergence of an accelerating sequence of foreshocks. The simulation result is compared with the other cascade earthquake models – ETAS and Coulomb rate and state. With the 3D version of the simulator, I investigated injection-induced earthquakes in complex fault systems. I presented simulation results with three different fault geometries, demonstrating that our simulator correctly accounts for the effect of fault geometry and regional stress tensor orientation and shape. These simulations show that Quake-DFN can be used to simulate earthquake sequences, most importantly magnitudes, possibly induced or triggered by a fluid injection near a known fault system.