GLOBAL POSTSEISMIC STRESS DIFFUSION AND FAULT INTERACTION AT LONG DISTANCES

Abstract

By means of a new theoretical model of global postseismic deformation we compute the time-depending postseismic stress field associated with eight of the greatest events of the century on an area extending for almost half of the Earth's surface. We evaluate the stress transferred by these big earthquakes to all the seismogenic structures of the Pacific belt that have generated earthquakes with M=<5 in the last years. We discuss the effect of this stress field on the state of the faults: the distribution of favoured and not favoured events is not uniform. The modeling suggests the existence of a physical connection among the patterns of release of seismic moment by the different plate margins of the Pacific area and the possibility of a self-organised geometrical configuration of the tectonic plates system.