Numerical simulation of slow deformation perturbations in fault zones

Abstract

Over the past half a century, the concept of slow deformation waves of the Earth has been developed and widely discussed in the Earth sciences. The velocity of slow waves is considered to be 5–6 orders of magnitude less than the velocity of sound and 7–8 orders of magnitude greater than tectonic flows. Analyzing and classifying various manifestations of slow deformation waves in the geomedium accumulated over forty years V. G. Bykov identifies two types of autowaves in his review—inter-fault and intra-fault. Here, the process of generation and propagation of slow deformation disturbances between two faults in an elastoplastic medium is studied numerically. The faults were defined as narrow elongated soft areas inclined to the axis of the load application. Just in these faults plastic deformation was permitted to generate. The simulations proved that the fronts of deformation waves head towards each other at approximately the same velocities, their shapes being close to planar but slightly curved.