School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Presents Dr. German A. Prieto, Universidad de Colombia

Repeating Earthquakes and Deviations from Scale Invariance of Earthquake Rupture  

Many features in nature seem to be scale invariant - fault size or fault roughness, ocean bathymetry and earthquake rupture – and are often described using a power-law (or scaling law). The scaling of earthquake source parameters has been (and still is) a controversial aspect in earthquake seismology. One such scaling laws suggests that as earthquakes become larger, so does the rupture duration or rupture area. But, do large earthquakes radiate seismic waves more efficiently than their smaller counterparts (e.g., per unit area)? Questions like this have important implications on the dynamics of earthquake rupture.