On boundary-element models of elastic fault interaction

We present the freely available, modular, and UNIX command-line based boundary-element program interact. It is yet another implementation of Crouch and Starfield's (1983) 2-D and Okada's (1992) half-space solutions for constant slip on planar fault segments in an elastic medium. Using unconstrained or non-negative, standard-package matrix routines, the code can solve for slip distributions on faults given stress boundary conditions, or vice versa, both in a local or global reference frame. Based on examples of complex fault geometries from structural geology, we discuss the effects of different stress boundary conditions on the predicted slip distributions of interacting fault systems. Such one-step calculations can be useful to estimate the moment-release efficiency of alternative fault geometries, and so to evaluate the likelihood which system may be realized in nature. A further application of the program is the simulation of cyclic fault rupture based on simple static-kinetic friction laws. We comment on two issues: First, that of the appropriate rupture algorithm. Cellular models of seismicity often employ an exhaustive rupture scheme: fault cells fail if some critical stress is reached, then cells slip once-only by a given amount, and subsequently the redistributed stress is used to check for triggered activations on other cells. We show that this procedure can lead to artificial complexity in seismicity if time-to-failure is not calculated carefully because of numerical noise. Second, we address the question if foreshocks can be viewed as direct expressions of a simple statistical distribution of frictional strength on individual faults. Repetitive failure models based on a random distribution of frictional coefficients initially show irregular seismicity. By repeatedly selecting weaker patches, the fault then evolves into a quasi-periodic cycle. Each time, the pre-mainshock events build up the cumulative moment release in a non-linear fashion. These temporal seismicity patterns roughly resemble the accelerated moment-release features which are sometimes observed in nature.