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Scaling of Fault Parameters for Continental Strike-Slip Earthquakes

Laboratoire de Tectonique, Mecanique de la Lithosphere, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, 4, place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, Cedex 05, France

Steven G. Wesnousky

Center for Neotectonic Studies, Mail Stop 169, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada 89557 stevew{at}seismo.unr.edu

The long-standing conflict between the predictions of elastic dislocation models and the observation that average coseismic slip increases with rupture length is resolved with application of a simple displacement-depth function and the assumption that the base of the seismogenic zone does not result from the onset of viscous relaxation but rather a transition to stable sliding in a medium that remains stressed at or close to failure. The resulting model maintains the idea of self-similarity for earthquakes across the entire spectrum of earthquake sizes.