eprintid: 1487 rev_number: 19 eprint_status: archive userid: 2 dir: disk0/00/00/14/87 datestamp: 2015-02-10 11:42:43 lastmod: 2017-02-08 12:21:33 status_changed: 2015-04-27 12:10:59 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Chery, Jean creators_name: Merkel, Sebastien creators_name: Bouissou, Stephane title: A Physical Basis for Time Clustering of Large Earthquakes ispublished: pub subjects: MP2_3 divisions: EPOS-P full_text_status: none abstract: We develop a theory that links stress interaction between earthquakes and the occurrence of temporal clustering. Coseismic static stress change in the vicinity (50 km) of large earthquakes suggests that perturbations of 0.1 to 1 bars may affect the occurrence of other earthquakes. At larger distances, interactions also seem to exist: four M 8 earthquakes have occurred in Mongolia on distant faults (400 km) during the last century. Also, paleoseismic observations documenting much longer time periods display a time clustering of major events. We demonstrate with simple mechanical concepts that postseismic stress relaxation magnifies the coseismic stress change and has a major effect on fault interaction during the seismic cycle. In the simple case where two distant faults are coupled, the probabilistic occurrence of triggered earthquakes may increase dramatically due to long range postseismic coupling. date: 2001-12-01 date_type: published publication: Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America volume: 91 number: 6 publisher: Seismological Society of America pagerange: 1685-1693 id_number: doi:10.1785/0120000298 refereed: TRUE issn: 0037-1106 official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1785/0120000298 access_IS-EPOS: limited owner: Publisher citation: Chery, Jean and Merkel, Sebastien and Bouissou, Stephane (2001) A Physical Basis for Time Clustering of Large Earthquakes. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 91 (6). pp. 1685-1693. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1785/0120000298