Publication Date
12-1-2024
Abstract
Earthquakes usually occur in the vicinity of fault lines. Until recently, geophysical analysis implied that the fault shape should not strongly affect the frequency of its earthquakes. However, recent statistical analysis has shown that faults whose shape is close to linear experience much fewer earthquakes than faults of more complex shape. Based on this empirical fact, researchers have adjusted the corresponding geophysical models, so the updated models do explain this newly discovered phenomenon. The experience of geophysics shows that the updated model will probably need to be updated again when new data appears. It is therefore desirable to come up with an explanation of the above phenomenon that does not depend on the specifics of the underlying physical model. In this paper, we provide such an explanation -- it is based only on the corresponding geometric symmetries and on the general physical ideas related to symmetries and their violations.
Comments
Technical Report: UTEP-CS-24-54