Numerical simulations of a 15° restraining bend analog claybox experiment include considering the fault geometry, rheology, and boundary conditions. The numerical models show that a growing fault from an analog experiment propagates at depth rather than at the surface and is exposed in later stages of the experiment, and that the wet kaolin clay from the analog experiment is partially decoupled from the steel plate. The numerical models provide the stresses to predict accurate fault growth from the analog experiment and provide the evolution of external work within the fault system. The external work from the numerical models decrease as faults continue to grow, which agrees with the continuously increasing kinematic efficiency within the analog experiment.
Three-dimensional mechanical models are used to simulate the southern San Andreas fault. These models show that incorporating fault interaction, time since last earthquake rupture, and nearby earthquakes affects the stress state along a fault. Absolute shear tractions are calculated by multiplying time since last earthquake rupture with the simulated interseismic stressing rates for each fault strand. From our multi-cycle model, fault interaction affects local normal stressing rates so that the stresses are not relieved in between earthquakes. We provide our absolute shear tractions and scale our multi-cycle normal stressing rates to be near to failure so that dynamic rupture modelers from University of California, Riverside use our results to simulate earthquake propagation for the complex fault region of the San Gorgonio Pass.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:masters_theses_2-1462 |
| Date | 07 November 2016 |
| Creators | Stern, Aviel Rachel |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Masters Theses |
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