Simulation of Earthquake Models

Earthquake fault systems belong to a wide class of nonlinear driven dissipative systems in nature which need much work to understand although physicists have developed a well-defined theoretical framework to describe systems in equilibrium. For my Ph.D. work at Clark University and Boston University, I built earthquake models and performed earthquake simulations to understand the power-law scaling for earthquake phenomena using the spinodal nucleation theory from statistical physics.

1. W. Klein, Junchao Xia, C. D. Ferguson, H. Gould, K. F. Tiampo, and J. B. Rundle, “ Models of earthquake faults: Ergodicity and Forecasting,” Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 23, 5553 (2009).
2. Junchao Xia, Harvey Gould, W. Klein, and J. Rundle, “ Near mean-field behavior in the generalized Burridge-Knopoff model of earthquakes with variable range stress transfer,” Phys. Rev. E 77, 031132 (2008).
3. Junchao Xia, Harvey Gould, W. Klein, and J. Rundle, “ Simulation of the Burridge-Knopoff model of earthquakes with variable range stress transfer,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 248501 (2005).