A COMPUTER simulation has recreated swarms of virtual earthquakes just like
the real thing, scientists announced last week.
Cracks from earthquakes follow a power law鈥攂igger cracks are much less
common than smaller ones. Charles Scholz of Columbia University in New York and
his colleagues tried to reproduce this pattern in a computer model of solid rock
floating on a softer mantle.
When the rock was stressed, cracks formed and started to spread. 鈥淪ometimes
the crack had a stress shadow that stopped other faults from coming near, and
sometimes the faults attracted each other,鈥� says Scholz.
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Most strikingly, the crack size and displacement matched the power laws for
real quakes. Scholz hopes the program will help researchers understand how
faults and cracks evolve.
