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Earthquake Rupture Front: Sub-Rayleigh to Supershear

A quasi-dynamic slip-weakening fault model: watch a rupture nucleate and propagate along a fault plane, and see when its front speed crosses from sub-Rayleigh to supershear relative to the shear-wave speed.

Climate, Ecology & Environment3DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

A fault is discretised into elastically-coupled patches obeying linear slip-weakening friction and steady tectonic loading. As background stress builds, one patch reaches its static strength first, slip cascades to its neighbours through the coupling term, and a rupture front races outward in both directions until it outruns the available stress or reaches the fault's ends. The simulator tracks that front's position in real time and reports its propagation speed against the shear-wave speed derived from the same rigidity you control — the same ratio seismologists use to flag a supershear earthquake.

⚙ Under the hood

A quasi-dynamic slip-weakening fault model where a rupture nucleates and propagates along a chain of elastically coupled patches, letting you watch its front speed cross from sub-Rayleigh to supershear relative to the shear-wave speed.

earthquakefault ruptureseismologyslip-weakeningsupersheargeophysics

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install