A synthetic fault system in a spherical and viscoelastic earth model

Abstract

In order to improve our knowledge about fault interaction at long distances, we developed a synthetic fault system based on a spherical, viscoelastic, self-gravitating earth model. Though seismicity in our simulation is controlled mainly by tectonic loading, our results highlight the significant role played by stress transfer in assessing the spatiotemporal pattern of the earthquakes also on global scale. In particular, we observed that the post-seismic stress diffusion could modify the seismicity rate of a local structure up to 70 per cent and it affects structures thousands kilometres away from the source. © 2005 RAS.