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Stochastic slip (fakequakes)

Diego Melgar edited this page Jan 22, 2019 · 32 revisions

Generating stochastic slip distributions

In this entry I will explain how to generate stochastic slip distributions using the fakequakes module. All of the files for this example can be found in examples/fakequakes/planar. I will discuss only a planar geometry. Fakequakes can also generate slip distributions on a 3D geometry, for example from Slab 2.0, I will cover that in another entry. Similarly you can synthesize HR-GPS and strong motion waveforms from the stochastic slip models. This will also be covered elsewhere. For now, the goal is simply to teach you to generate the slip model itself.

The details behind the fakequakes implementation can be found in these two papers:

  • LeVeque, R. J., Waagan, K., González, F. I., Rim, D., & Lin, G. (2016). Generating random earthquake events for probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment. In Global Tsunami Science: Past and Future, Volume I (pp. 3671-3692). Birkhäuser, Cham.

  • Melgar, D., LeVeque, R. J., Dreger, D. S., & Allen, R. M. (2016). Kinematic rupture scenarios and synthetic displacement data: An example application to the Cascadia subduction zone. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 121(9), 6658-6674.

The fakequakes parameter file

Begin by copying the file subduction.fq.py into a folder of your choice where you will keep your fakequakes runs. For example on my machine I have a folder /home/dmelgar/fakequakes/run where I keep all my parameter files.

This is the parameter or control file that defines all the details of your models. Open it in a text editor or IDE (I use Spyder). The first thing we will do is initalize the file structure. The first lines of code look like this: