Dynamics of Earthquake Faults

Abstract

We present an overview of our ongoing studies of the rich dynamical behavior of the uniform, deterministic Burridge--Knopoff model of an earthquake fault. We discuss the behavior of the model in the context of current questions in seismology. Some of the topics considered include: (1) basic properties of the model, such as the magnitude vs. frequency distribution and the distinction between small and large events; (2) dynamics of individual events, including dynamical selection of rupture propagation speeds; (3) generalizations of the model to more realistic, higher dimensional models; (4) studies of predictability, in which artificial catalogs generated by the model are used to test and determine the limitations of pattern recognition algorithms used in seismology.