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Phenomenology of seismic macrofracture formation

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Abstract

A phenomenological scheme is proposed for the formation of a seismic macrofracture in the crust through multiscale avalanche-like crack coalescence of the inverse cascade type. Relations connecting fractal dimensions of crack sets and the concentration criterion of coalescence of cracks that are required for the onset of multiscale fracture are obtained. It is shown that the enlargement of cracks from micro-to macroscales includes a relatively small number of hierarchical coalescence stages.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Bol’shaya Gruzinskaya ul. 10, Moscow, 123995, Russia

    I. R. Stakhovsky

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  1. I. R. Stakhovsky
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Original Russian Text © I.R. Stakhovsky, 2008, published in Fizika Zemli, 2008, No. 7, pp. 58–65.

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Stakhovsky, I.R. Phenomenology of seismic macrofracture formation. Izv., Phys. Solid Earth 44, 570–576 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1069351308070070

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1069351308070070

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