Earthquakes and fractures

Abstract The high degree of similarity between earthquakes and fractures strongly supports the fracture hypothesis of earthquakes. From this standpoint the stochastic process of earthquake occurrence, the relation between magnitude of earthquakes and their number, the mechanism of various patterns of earthquake sequences, the relation between the patterns of earthquake sequences and geotectonic structures, and the mechanism of foreshocks and aftershocks are discussed based on laboratory experiments on the brittle fracture of materials. The fracture theory seems to give a systematic explanation of these individual features of earthquake phenomena. This theory seems also to have application to the earthquake prediction problem.

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