3-D Fourier Elastic and Viscoelastic Deformation Modeling


Bridget Smith-Konter
Department of Geology and Geophysics
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Honolulu, HI 96822
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/FACULTY/smithkonter/
David Sandwell
Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics

Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0225
http://topex.ucsd.edu/sandwell


Long-term tectonic loading, instantaneous fault rupture, and transient postseismic rebound are key components of the earthquake cycle that expose important spatial and temporal chaaracteristics of crustal deformation. In order to better understand such behavior, we have developed semi-analytic elastic and viscoelastic (static and time-dependent) models for 3-D displacement and stress caused by a body-force dislocation. All solutions of the model are derived (and computed) in the Fourier domain to exploit the speed of the convolution theorem and thus horizontal complexity of a model fault system has no effect on the speed of the computation. A single-depth computation consisting of a horizontal grid of 2048x2048 elements, for example, requires less than 40 seconds of CPU time on a Mac G5.


Selected Publications

Animations and Movies
Visualizations
Model Derivations and Source Code


This research was supported by the NASA Solid Earth and Natural Hazards Program (NAGS - 9623), the NASA Earth System Science Fellowship Program (ESSF - 0131), the NSF Earth  Science Program (EAR - 0105896), and the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC).



Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego