Simulated timeYear 00 quakes

Click the fault to pre-load stress on a segment

Interseismic loading Nucleation Rupture Aftershock clustering Post-seismic

Shear stress vs time (sawtooth)

Cumulative slip (plate vs fault)

Event catalogue (time vs M)

Gutenberg–Richter (log N ≥ M)

Recurrence intervals

Fault Stress & Earthquake Cycle

A Burridge–Knopoff chain of frictional blocks, pulled by a steadily moving plate through leaf springs. Stress builds, a block slips, neighbours are overloaded and a rupture cascades: stick-slip.

Driving

Plate velocity 35 mm/yr Time-lapse 6 yr/s Rupture playback speed 40×

Fault properties

Friction contrast (velocity weakening) 0.45 Spring stiffness ratio k_c/k_p 3.0 Locking depth 15 km Recurrence histogram: M ≥ 6.5

Last event

No quake yet…

Recent quakes

Legend

low stressat strength

Stress per block = leaf-spring + neighbour-spring force relative to its static friction (heterogeneous, ±30 %). Friction drops with slip velocity, so a block that starts sliding keeps accelerating until the stress is released. Magnitude comes from seismic moment M₀ = μ·A·Σslip. Displacements on screen are exaggerated.