A non-homogenous model for the spring-block cellular automaton for earthquakes

Abstract

Many complex systems exhibit self-organizing criticality (SOC). In fact, there is a consensus that the Earth’s crust is a SOC system. The Olami, Feder and Christensen (OFC) spring-block model is a non-conservative SOC model that is used successfully to simulate the dynamics of seismic faults. In this model the system of coupled differential equations representing the spring-block model is mapped to a cellular automaton. In this work we include the idea of asperity, which is an important concept in real seismicity, by varying the distribution in the spring-block network. Considering that in real life seismicity faults are composed of different elements, it is necessary to have a model with these characteristics. We were able of reproduce the Gutenberg-Richter behavior (previously obtained in the classic OFC model) in this non-homogenous distribution.