Study on Simulation of Foreshock Activity Properties before Strong Earthquake Using Heterogeneous Cellular Automata Models

Abstract

Three different degrees of heterogeneous fault models are simulated by using 2-D random dynamic cellular automata models for analyzing macroscopic behaviors of seismic activity evolution influenced by heterogeneity of fault structures. The results show that the heterogeneities of fault structures can influence evolution properties of the foreshock activity and rupture process, such as the mediate heterogeneous and less heterogeneous structures, which show relatively higher ASR rates and more significant seismic gaps before main shocks. Besides, stress drop distribution ranges of the foreshock events when approaching a main shock show more homogenous (narrower) than that of the foreshock events far from a main shock. So the heterogeneity of fault structures plays an important role in strong earthquake preparation processes.