Abstract
Faulting in a medium with an inhomogeneity is analysed applying two-dimensional models consisting of a shear crack in a presence of a circular inclusion. The stress drop and the stress intensity factor are calculated for mode II and III cracks of various positions in relation to the inclusion. The results demonstrate that the effect of an inhomogeneity on a shear zone strongly depends on the location of a zone for either mode II or mode III shear zone. This effect is mostly due to the spatial distribution of external effective shear stress around an inhomogeneity. Depending on the position, an inhomogeneity may have either a destabilizing effect (the stress intensity factor becomes greater) or a stabilizing influence (the stress intensity factor is decreased or faulting is prohibited so the inhomogeneity acts as an asperity or a barrier). There is a substantial difference, however, between mode II and mode III shear zones approaching an inhomogeneity centrally. Namely, the effect of inhomogeneity on the mode III shear zone located in the immediate vicinity of the inhomogeneity is in this case considerably more pronounced than that for mode II shear zone and depends to a far greater extent on the rigidity contrast between the inhomogeneity and the surrounding medium. Another important conclusion is that the quantitative effect of an inhomogeneity on faulting depends essentially on the initial value of the stress drop of a shear zone approaching an inhomogeneity, being decidedly higher for a shear zone of small stress drop. It means that in specified areas in the proximity of medium inhomogeneities one should expect substantially greater faulting activity in which weak events prevail than in other regions surrounding inhomogeneities where such activity should be distinctly reduced. Such conclusions apply to both high rigidity inhomogeneities, which, in particular, may be associated with intrusions from the upper mantle, and to low rigidity inhomogeneities such as volcanos. The present model sets forth the plausible explanation regarding why earthquakes from the same region are occasionally characterized by various values of the stress drop. The model also presents the quantitative insight concerning how heterogeneity of the medium, in the sense of spatial variation of elastic constants, affects faulting.
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Rybicki, K.R. On faulting in a medium containing an inhomogeneity inplane and antiplane strain models. PAGEOPH 134, 283–301 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00877002
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00877002