Journal de géologie et géophysique
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Earthquake Repeat Time, Stress Drop, Type of Slip and Earthquake Magnitude

Wajahat Ali and Sean Shieh

The stress field along a plate margin is one of the basic tools for forecasting the magnitude of future earthquakes. Tectonic features like faulting, folding, fracturing and volcanoes are the results of stresses that build up along different fault lines across the world. Stress drop is a fundamental parameter of earthquakes. It is important to know how much portion of stress energy is released by an earthquake. Another important source parameter of earthquakes is repeat time, or the reoccurrence period of earthquakes. The reoccurrence period or repeat time of earthquakes is controlled by the rate of tectonic loading which is the long term slip rate, stress accumulation and stress drop. Earthquakes with long reoccurrence period have a higher average stress drop than those with short repeat time. The probability of reoccurrence of earthquakes is time dependent; which defines that some period is required to recharge stresses before they are released by a large earthquake. Time dependency of reoccurrence of a large earthquake is the base of earthquake forecasting. In this project earthquake repeat time and stress drop is determine for different fault types. Results of this study provide a method to estimate important parameters of active faults including static and dynamic stress drop, rupture length, width and earthquake magnitudes. These parameters can be used for future earthquake forecasting and prediction.