Effect of frictional healing on the scaling of seismicity

Abstract

A 1D Burridge-Knopoff model, with velocity-dependent friction, is used to study the effect of frictional healing on the scaling of seismicity. When a mass element stops motion, the frictional sliding strength in the model is considered to be linearly increased at a healing rate, h, from dynamic friction to static friction. The ratio of the frictional healing rate to the tectonic loading rate, LV, is considered to be a factor. Results show that when h/LV>1, the frequency-magnitude (FM) distributions of model events exhibit a Gutenberg-Richter-type scaling, and the related b-value is relatively insensitive to h/LV. When h/LV=1, the pattern of the FM relation and the related b-value somewhat change. However, the ratio h/LV is only a minor factor in affecting the FM scaling. Copyright 1997 by the American Geophysical Union.