Abstract. In general terms, earthquakes are the result of brittle
failure within the heterogeneous crust of the Earth. However, the rupture
process of a heterogeneous material is a complex physical problem that is
difficult to model deterministically due to numerous parameters and
physical conditions, which are largely unknown. Considering the variability
within the parameterization, it is necessary to analyze earthquakes by means
of different approaches. Computational physics may offer alternative ways to
study brittle rock failure by generating synthetic seismic data based on
physical and statistical models and through the use of only few free parameters.
The fiber bundle model (FBM) is a stochastic discrete model of material
failure, which is able to describe complex rupture processes in heterogeneous
materials. In this article, we present a computer code called
the stochasTic Rupture Earthquake MOdeL, TREMOL. This code is based on
the principle of the FBM to investigate the rupture process of asperities on
the earthquake rupture surface. In order to validate TREMOL, we carried out a
parametric study to identify the best parameter configuration while
minimizing computational efforts. As test cases, we applied the final
configuration to 10 Mexican subduction zone earthquakes in order to compare
the synthetic results by TREMOL with seismological observations. According to
our results, TREMOL is able to model the rupture of an asperity that is
essentially defined by two basic dimensions: (1) the size of the fault plane
and (2) the size of the maximum asperity within the fault plane. Based on
these data and few additional parameters, TREMOL is able to generate numerous
earthquakes as well as a maximum magnitude for different scenarios within a
reasonable error range. The simulated earthquake magnitudes are of the same
order as the real earthquakes. Thus, TREMOL can be used to analyze the
behavior of a single asperity or a group of asperities since TREMOL considers
the maximum magnitude occurring on a fault plane as a function of the size of
the asperity. TREMOL is a simple and flexible model that allows its users
to investigate the role of the initial stress configuration and the
dimensions and material properties of seismic asperities. Although various
assumptions and simplifications are included in the model, we show that
TREMOL can be a powerful tool to deliver promising new insights into
earthquake rupture processes.
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