Earthquakes vary in size over many orders of magnitude, often rupturing in complex multifault and multievent sequences. Despite the large number of observed earthquakes, the scaling of the earthquake energy budget remains enigmatic. We propose that fundamentally different fracture processes govern small and large earthquakes. We combined seismological observations with physics-based earthquake models, finding that both dynamic weakening and restrengthening effects are non-negligible in the energy budget of small earthquakes. We established a linear scaling relationship between fracture energy and fault size and a break in scaling with slip. We applied this scaling using supercomputing and unveiled large dynamic rupture earthquake cascades involving >700 multiscale fractures within a fault damage zone. We provide a simple explanation for seismicity across all scales with implications for comprehending earthquake genesis and multifault rupture cascades.

中文翻译：

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断层尺寸相关的断裂能解释了多尺度地震活动和级联地震


地震的规模有多个数量级，通常会在复杂的多断层和多事件序列中发生破裂。尽管观测到大量地震，但地震能量收支的规模仍然是个谜。我们认为，小地震和大地震受根本不同的断裂过程支配。我们将地震观测与基于物理的地震模型相结合，发现动力减弱和再加强效应在小地震的能量收支中都是不可忽略的。我们建立了断裂能和断层尺寸之间的线性标度关系以及滑移标度的中断。我们使用超级计算应用了这种缩放，并揭示了涉及断层破坏区内超过 700 个多尺度裂缝的大型动态破裂地震级联。我们对所有尺度的地震活动提供了简单的解释，对于理解地震成因和多断层破裂级联具有重要意义。