About Earthquakes in Subduction Zones with the Potential to Cause a Tsunami

Abstract

The problem of occurrence of starting earthquakes in subduction zones is considered. Subduction is the phenomenon of movement of the oceanic lithospheric plate under the continental one. The oceanic lithospheric plate at a certain depth melts from below and can slide. The paper considers the occurrence of starting earthquakes under the assumption that lithospheric plates have different contact conditions, being on a rigid base in the subduction zone. A molten lithospheric plate has no tangential contact stresses, while the other, oceanic, is rigidly connected to the base. The block element method is used to study the occurrence of the starting earthquake and the peculiarity of its consequences. The conditions to generate of tsunamis as a result of such earthquakes are being studied. Solutions to boundary value problems that are constructed precisely, rather than approximatively, allow us to reveal the mechanisms of destruction of the environment that were not previously known. In particular, the results obtained allowed us to detect a new type of crack that was not previously described. They destroy the environment in a different way than Griffiths cracks, which is demonstrated in this paper and is important in engineering practice.