Models of earthquake faults with long-range stress transfer

Seismologists, and more recently computational and condensed-matter physicists, have made extensive use of computer modeling to investigate the physics of earthquakes. The authors describe a simple cellular automaton model that explores the possible relationship between Gutenberg-Richter scaling law and critical phenomena. The presence of scale invariance coupled with the ubiquity of this law in diverse geological conditions indicates that the large-scale statistical properties of earthquakes may be insensitive to environmental details. In this case, relatively simple models will properly capture the essential physics responsible for these behaviors.